Excerpts from the Pilgrim Holiness Advocate

Excerpts from the Pilgrim Holiness Advocate

SELECTED ARTICLES

From the Pilgrim Holiness Advocate

Compiled by Duane V. Maxey

The Pilgrim Holiness Church follows the Methodist tradition with a strong emphasis on the Wesleyan

principles of sanctification of believers and evangelistic missionary work. In 1897 Martin Wells Knapp,

a Methodist minister in Cincinnati, Ohio, organized the International Apostolic Holiness Union to

restore the original spirit of John Wesley on “apostolic practices, methods, power and success.” Twenty-

five years later the International Holiness Church (derived from the Union) joined with the like-minded

Pilgrim Church of California to become the Pilgrim Holiness Church. In 1964 inclusive membership

totaled more than 33,500, with national headquarters located in Indianapolis, IN, and churches

scattered throughout the U.S. and Canada.

The church’s stress on sanctification is based on Wesley’s teaching that once a person is justified he may

grow in holiness through his generous response to the Indwelling Spirit. This “second blessing” adds a

sense of security that the sinner is now reconciled with God, and gives him an emotional experience that

is unmistakable. In its accent on “true Wesleyanism,” the Pilgrim Holiness Church holds that

sanctification is both possible and commendable; that man’s sinfulness has not deprived him of the

capacity for a willing cooperation with grace.

The weekly magazine, Pilgrim Holiness Advocate, published in Indianapolis, is an indispensable bond

that unites more than 1,000 rural and small (usually 50 or less)congregations in 40 states.

(Note the stark contrast in tone with the earlier works featured on this website, including those by

Knapp. In Knapp's teaching obtaining entire sanctification was not merely “possible and

commendable”; it was necessary. The Christian life was viewed as positively dangerous without this

spiritual armor since it relied upon the tides of human resolve to stay true, rather than the Rock. With

this firm and unwavering emphasis many more obtained this highest of God's graces!!! Earnest Seeker)





CONTENTS



01 – The Story Of Sandy Harte – Anon.

02 – A Curse Or A Blessing? -- Editorial By W. C. Stone

03 – Preparation And Delivery Of Sermons – Clarence E. Winslow

04 – Guarding Against The Spirit Of Compromise – E. W. Hall

05 – War And Rumors Of War – George Beirnes

06 – How To Succeed – God’s Way And Full Of Obedience – R. G. Finch

07 – Questionable Conduct – Editorial By H. J. Olsen

08 – Desperation Wins – E. E. Shelhamer

09 – Habit – Learn To Do Well

10 – Jesus Met My Need

11 – Moderation – George Beirnes

12 -- I Can’t Afford It – E. E. Shelhamer

13 – Open Windows – Mel T. Rothwell

14 – Importance Of Our Church Covenant – Charles L. Stout 15 – News And Comments On Religion –

William H. Neff 16 – The Forgotten Dream – Editorial By H. J. Olsen 17 – A Glorious Revival –

William S. Deal

18 – Behaving In Church – H. C. Morrison

19 – Great Decisions – Anon.

20 – Ministerial Unfaithfulness – The Holiness Mission Journal 21 – God First – J. Maxey Walton 22 –

Missed It At Last – The Prairie Overcomer

23 – Thank You For The Tract – Anon.

24 – George W. Ridout – 1870-1954

25 – Saved From A Suicide’s Grave – Oscar Lund

26 – Whole-Hearted Service – H. C. Morrison

27 – To The Regions Beyond – William S. Deal

28 – Blessed Are The Pure In Heart – George W. Ridout 29 – The Great Judgment Day -- I. M

Wickham

30 – Why We Believe In Holiness – William S. Deal 31 – Hearing With Profit – Adam Clarke 32 –

Ministerial Responsibility – William S. Deal

33 – E. M. Bounds – A Biographical Sketch – H. W. Hodge 34 – A Pastor’s Tact – American Holiness

Journal



From The Children’s Page

Pilgrim Holiness Advocate

Vol. XIII – January 5, 1933 – No. 1



01 – THE STORY OF SANDY HARTE

Anon.

Sandy Harte was an Indian lad found by Edgerton Young when on the rounds of his work in the great

northwest territory of Canada. When visiting his appointment on Nelson River, at the noon hour, Mr.

Young entered one of the wigwams of a principal Indian. There he found a lad lying covered up. It is an

unusual thing for an Indian lad to stay indoors.

“Why are you lying here this beautiful day?” he asked.

“Missionary, that is the reason why I am here, instead of being out in the sunshine with the other boys,”

and he showed a limb shattered so that he would never walk again. He had been accidentally shot while

hunting.

The missionary chatted with the boy, and asked him if he would like to learn to read the Bible. The

Indian boy expressed his delight. He would like to learn. Mr. Young then began to teach him the

syllabic alphabet which was used for the Indians. He taught him each day until he had to leave and go

to another place. When he was going away he suggested to the Indians that they should have Sandy

Harte educated so he could become their teacher. “He might be a blessing to you all,” the missionary

had said.

About a year afterward, one day some Indians came to the home of the missionary. They soon told him

that they had not forgotten his words, and that they had brought Sandy to him.

“Sandy? Who is Sandy?” the missionary asked. He had forgotten about the boy he had seen the year

before. Then they reminded him of what had happened the previous year, and repeated the missionary’s

words, word for word. They assured the missionary that they had brought Sandy along so that he could

be taught.

And there was Sandy in person. Mr. Young then introduced him to his wife, and told her Sandy’s story.

It was at a time when it was not very convenient for them to take Sandy into their home because their

food supplies were very low. But they did take him. They were sure that the means for taking care of

Sandy would be provided.

Sandy made rapid progress in school. He was more interested in learning than he was interested in

religion. But the new soon wore off and he became homesick. Instead of going to school he went off on

the river and there alone he cried bitterly for his old home.

Mr. Edgerton had to use more than persuasive words. He had to threaten punishment in order to get

Sandy to go back to the house. But he prepared his clothes so that he could return to his own home. So

kindly did the missionary treat him that Sandy could not understand it all. He went and talked to some

of the Christian Indians about it.

The Indian he talked to, told him that the missionary was there to do them good. He also assured Sandy

that he was the best treated person among them. Any other Indian boy would be glad to have Sandy’s

place. Sandy had not been making the best use of all his advantages. He told Sandy that he had not

been grateful for what had been done for him. The missionary was interested in Sandy, so he was

assured, and wanted him to become a Christian. The Christian Indian talked kindly but firmly with

Sandy, and his advice caused him to mend his ways and improve his time and show more appreciation.

Sandy was in the missionary’s home about a year more before he became a Christian. There was a

revival at that time, and Sandy became interested. In the midst of one of the services Sandy went

forward for prayer. There at the altar he was instructed how to give his heart to the Savior, which he did

and sang with his beautiful voice one of the hymns which had been translated into his language.

Sandy had come to the missionary to learn to read, but he had found more. He not only could read, but

he had come to know the One who could give life to His Word. From this day Sandy became a great

helper in the Christian work and a great comfort to the missionary. He lived as a son in the home of the

missionary. One day he told the missionary how much it had meant to him.

“You let me come into your house when I was wounded, and dark and wicked; clothed me, and have

even treated me as though I had been your son; and best of all, you have led me up into the great joy of

knowing that I am a child of God.”

When Sandy was well prepared he went back to his own people to be their teacher and leader. And in

this he was a blessing to them.



Pilgrim Holiness Advocate

Vol. XIII – June 22, 1933 – No. 25



02 A CURSE OR A BLESSING?

Editorial by W. C. Stone

At one time in the early ministry of the writer, he was put in charge of a circuit in connection with

which there was a camp meeting which had been held annually for many years.

Knowing very little of camp meetings except what he had read of them and their great power for good

in the history of early American Methodism, he looked ahead enthusiastically to camp meeting time,

but was amazed to find that many of the most spiritual people of the circuit were not interested in the

preparations for camp meeting. Upon inquiry as to the reason for this, he was told that it had become a

question in their minds whether camp meetings were not more of a curse than a blessing.

Further investigation as to how the camps at this and surrounding places had been conducted, revealed

the fact that for many years they had been degenerating from occasions of spiritual power and salvation

to mere gatherings for worldly enjoyment, social visiting, and physical recreation. Worldly pleasure

had become the chief attraction for those who attended; there was no interest in the deeper things of the

Spirit on the part of the professed Christians, no burden for the salvation of the lost on the part of the

ministers, and no conviction for sin or hunger for salvation on the part of the unsaved.

We resolved that the Devil should not have his way any longer undisputed in the demoralization and

spiritual ruin of the people, so we gathered a few spiritual people together in meetings for prevailing

prayer, invited the most spiritual preachers of our acquaintance for our helpers and through the blessing

of God saw come to pass what the people said was the first spiritual revival that had occurred on that

camp ground for over 20 years.

But our purpose in referring to this experience with camp meetings of another denomination in other

days is not merely to note the tendency to degeneration and spiritual death prevailing so strongly at that

time – a tendency that has long since issued in the almost total extinction of camp meetings in

connection with the work of that denomination throughout the country. Our purpose is to point out the

fact that history tends to repeat itself, and that if we do not awaken to the subtle devices of the Enemy

and unite in the power of prevailing prayer to dispute his progress, it will not be many decades before

“Ichabod” shall likewise be written over the names of many of our own camp meetings where the

mighty power of God has been manifested in other days. There is not so much danger that our camps

shall lose the form of godliness or adopt the worldly plans and policies which have wrecked so many

others, but there is danger that while we cling to the form there may come a gradual loss of vital

spiritual power.

Is there not already evident in some places a gradual loss of interest in the deeper things of God? Are

the people of God as hungry for righteousness, as burdened for the lost, as prayerful, as active around

the altar, as industrious in personal work as they were in former years? Do the woods ring as of yore

with the petitions of praying individuals and groups? Are the worldly throngs brought under conviction

and made hungry for salvation by the holy lives, victorious shouts, and weeping entreaties of the

saints?

Is it not a common lament of those who have known the mighty spiritual demonstrations of former

days – that the very atmosphere of certain camps is vitally different from what it used to be? Have we

not all of us been conscious of the fact that the power of the Devil dominating the worldly crowds

which flock to many of our camps is increasingly difficult to counteract? Is there not an increasing

tendency on the part of many to take defeat as an inevitable result, instead of rallying with intensified

determination to turn defeat into victory and see a repetition of the manifestations of Divine power such

as we have seen in the past?

It is certain that the drift of the tide is in the wrong direction; but it is also certain that to those who will

claim them, the promises of God are just as true today and His power is just the same. The

responsibility rests with the people of God. A worldly, lukewarm, prayerless, powerless crowd of camp

meeting professors without burden for the spiritual welfare of themselves or others is a curse to the

sinners and stumbling block to the worldly throngs which attend their services. Whether the gospel we

preach shall be a savor of life or of death to our hearers depends upon how fully we appropriate and

how consistently we demonstrate the power of this gospel in our own lives. Whether our camp

meetings are a curse or a blessing to ourselves and to the world will depend upon the degree of spiritual

revival which we are enjoying in our own souls.

The encouraging thing is that such revival is within the reach of all. In the inspired prayer of the

Psalmist (Ps. 85:-6) “Wilt thou not revive us again?” we find much instruction and assurance: (1) That

the revival needed must begin with God’s people. (2) That it is God’s will to revive His people. (3) That

He is Himself the inexhaustible source of revival. Human help may be much or little, He is willing and

able to cope with any and every situation. (4) That if we pray this prayer, long, earnestly, and

believingly enough, our prayer will be turned into praise, for we will be enabled to rejoice gloriously in

Him, in the defeat of the Devil, and in the salvation of the people. Let us pray and sing “Revive us

again” until the revival comes.



Pilgrim Holiness Advocate

Vol. XIV – July 19, 1934 – No. 29



03 PREPARATION AND DELIVERY OF SERMONS

Clarence E. Winslow

A sermon is not an oration nor an essay. The word is derived from the Latin sermo, meaning a talk, a

speaking. It is a religious discourse, a proclamation of truth. It embraces the text, the introduction, the

argument, and the conclusion. It should proceed directly from the heart of the preacher to the soul of

the hearer, as a preacher deals with God in behalf of men and with men in behalf of God. It is God’s

message through man to men. In view of these facts its preparation becomes vitally important.

The text is that out of which the sermon is woven, or spun. The choice of the text being the initial step

in the construction of the sermon, it should be attended with deliberate thoughtfulness and devout

anxiety for Divine guidance. Seek God’s message. The world is hungry for the inspired message of

truth, delivered with the unction of the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven. God will give you a

message, but He will not prepare and deliver it for you

When you choose a text, let it be a text and not a pretext. Some preachers are like the diving ducks I

have seen on rivers and lakes; they are seen when they dive and when they come up; their text is heard

at the beginning and at the end. Into whatever river or rivulet you may guide your hearers, map out the

course so clearly that they can see its connection with the great ocean of truth.

Study the text, the context, parallel passages, and other resources. Consult your Bible and your people.

Gather your audience about your desk in your imagination and it their needs determine the nature of

your sermon, being aware of their needs from visitation and observation.

As our acquaintance with a friend is preceded by an introduction, so should an argument be. The first

impressions should be favorable and should pave the way for what is to follow. The introduction leads

from the text to the argument. I have heard preachers talk at random about as long before they began to

preach as the time consumed in the preaching. Announcements and reports are not an introduction.

Prepare to introduce your message clearly.

Proceed to formulate the main divisions. A sermon needs an outline as a man needs a skeleton. The

argument develops the subject by discussion, often facilitated by divisions. Let the arguments of

different degrees of strength advance in the order of climax. When Paul stood before Felix and

reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and the judgment, Felix trembled. Undoubtedly reasoning of

the judgment clinched the necessity of righteousness and temperance.

Amplify and illustrate each division. Illustrations are to sermons what windows are to buildings; they

let the light in and are essential. However, too many windows weaken a structure.

A long list of illustrations do not compose a sermon. They should be used to explain the truth you

desire to present. Have a definite purpose in view. Spy a mark; aim at it. Letters unaddressed go to the

dead letter office. Present the simple Word of God, a Scriptural message with the authority of Heaven.

Stick to the Book. Metaphysical dissertations may confound the intellect; historical flourishes may

captivate the imagination, but the conscience will remain untouched. Abstain from philosophical

speculations; from all perplexing and intricate reasoning. Great words do not make a great sermon.

Remember Paul’s saying, “My preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in

demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” -- I Cor. 2 :4. Keep out of sight; egotism is offensive. Logic

can be met with logic, but a “thus saith the Lord” will arrest attention, disarm logic, and bring the

sinner to his knees.

The argument is supplemented by the conclusion. The last five minutes of the sermon is the most

important part. It is during this time that the issues involved are decided. Careful preparation of the

conclusion is extremely: important and should not be neglected or entrusted to the inspiration of the

moment. It should be no longer than the introduction. In some sermons recapitulation and clear

application is necessary, while in others the last argument, which should be the most impressive, may

itself become the conclusion. Conclude when you are through. Better omit a little than to stumble

around trying to find a lost point, and preach off conviction or kill the effect of the message.

After ample preparation of the outline and material has been made, think your message through

prayerfully. This will greatly aid in its delivery. Announce the text and introduce the message in

conversational tone. To begin in a loud or sensational manner means not only that your voice may fail

at the climax, but the interest of the people which should be increasing will be decreasing. Let the

people see that the controversy is not between you and them, but between them and God. Throw your

whole soul into the message. Make the material your own; assimilate it; digest it; adopt it; and present

it as your own. To the extent you feel it, your hearers are capable of being impressed. If it is light in

your own soul, open the shutters and let it illuminate the darkness without. Fire kindles fire;

indifference cannot excite enthusiasm. It has been said that if people go to sleep under your appeals it is

because you are not awake. However, we must guard against excessive enthusiasm and awkward

gestures. Gestures may strengthen the force of the voice, but they do not speak. Be natural is a good

rule to follow. Don’t lose yourself in spectacular gestures.

The press has done a great work, but it can never take the place of the living preacher, the persuasive

tongue, the melting eye, the enkindling emotion. The great apostle Paul said, “Knowing therefore the

terror of the Lord, we persuade men.” Make sinners feel that pardon is a free gift, and in seeking and

serving the Lord they do not confer any favor upon Him, but are themselves the recipients of the most

amazing grace.



Pilgrim Holiness Advocate

Vol. XIV – December 13, 1934 – No. 50



04 GUARDING AGAINST THE SPIRIT OF COMPROMISE

E. W. Hall

In this lukewarm Laodicean age of compromise surely this theme of “guarding against the spirit of

compromise,” is a timely subject. There are many who hold to the doctrine of Balaam who taught

Balac to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to

commit fornication. Many preachers seem to believe in a mixed membership of believers and

unbelievers; gnostics and agnostics; good and bad. Many have great respect for the character of the

faithful, but will not refuse the Balaamites the privilege of believing and acting as they please.

In the beginning God divided the light from the darkness, and He has been in the dividing business ever

since. It is either a separation or a compromise. The Church of Christ is a called-out, separated,

consecrated people in the world, but not of it. When we drag down the church to the level of the world,

instead of lifting the world to the level of the church, we are doing the work of Satan rather than the

work of God. There is no room for half-heartedness, no neutral ground, no excuse for indifference, no

need of compromise. The cure for this awful sin is the presence of God in the life and fellowship with

Jesus Christ.

The compromising spirit is manifested in many ways, such as: in efforts to lower the Bible standard of

Christianity in order to make it less repulsive to carnally-minded men; in ignoring the Bible terms in

the relation of religious experience, in order to please men. In depending for the prosperity of the

church upon her wealth and popularity, or upon the learning, talents, and eloquence of her ministers,

rather than upon God.

Let us enumerate some of the ways to guard against the spirit of compromise.

First, we should pray. We are affected by our associates. Waiting upon God has a reactionary effect

upon us. Moses pulled away from his people, away from the crowd, and spent forty days waiting upon

God. When he came back from the mount there was so much of God upon him and in his face that the

people could not look upon him unless he wore a veil. He knew no compromise. He broke the tables of

stone and cried, “Who is on the Lord’s side?” We need to pray that we may become more like the One

who knew no sin, and who feared neither men nor devils.

“No man can serve two masters.” Sin must be opposed in high places or in low; in great things or in

little things; among enemies or friends. Daniel prayed until he could read the handwriting upon the wall

and uncompromisingly told the king that he was weighed in the balances and found wanting. If we fail

to rebuke sin, the blood of souls will be required at our hand.

Second, we need to study the Word. “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.”

“Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing

the word of truth.” Yea, “search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life; and they are

they which testify of me.” Of all the books in the world, it is more important that we should have a

knowledge of the Bible than of any other book. We should know the “Thus saith the Lord,” for Jesus

Himself defeated the enemy with the Word of God. In the Word we find how to walk, how to talk, how

to act, how to look, etc. We should walk circumspectly in the world, be just in our dealings, faithful in

our engagements, exemplary in our deportment and dress according to 1 Peter 3:3, 4. We should abstain

from contracting debts without due care to discharge them; avoid all tattling, backbiting, evil speaking

and unprofitable and frivolous conversation. We should shun the very appearance of evil, for it is the

little foxes that spoil the vine. “Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee.

Third, we must have a clean life. One may pray and study the Word and yet compromise because of

covered sin in his life. “They that bear the vessels of the Lord must be clean.” Here is a divine demand

for separation and cleansing. One of the main things that will keep us from compromising is a clean life.

It has been well said that God does not demand a beautiful vessel for His work, but He does demand a

clean one. One may have great natural gifts, and may possess a vast store of knowledge; he may know

much about the Bible and manifest great zeal in attempting to work for God and yet miserably fail

because of covered sin in his life. Sin unconfessed and unforsaken, sin cherished and held on to, sin the

world knows nothing about and does not see, will cause one to compromise and lose the victories as the

children of Israel did when they went out to meet Ai. Secret sin was in the camp. Samson failed at a

critical moment in the valley of Sorek because he broke vows with God. A clean life will make one

fearless, faithful, and fervent for God. We cannot pick a mote out of our brother’s eye, if we have a

beam in our own. David cried, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me;

then will I teach transgressors thy way; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.”

Fourth, we must have compassion. We may be orthodox in creed and in deed, and yet lack our first

love. It is well to hate wickedness and error, but when this hatred dries up our love for the wicked and

erring we have backslidden. God hates evil, but He is love. “Though I speak with the tongues men and

of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I

have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith,

so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have

not charity, it profiteth me nothing.” The same compassion that caused our Christ to go through

Samaria and lift the fallen woman who was at the well, and who told the woman who was taken in

adultery to go and sin no more, stood before the blinded Pharisees in their hypercritical state,

denounced their ungodliness aid pronounced the woe upon them. This compassion will cause us to

uncompromisingly declare the whole counsel of God.

In conclusion, let us notice some of the men of old who stood true to their God-given convictions and

refused to compromise. There was Nathan who stood before the king and said, “Thou art the man;” the

three Hebrew children who were cast into the fiery furnace; Daniel who purposed in his heart that he

would not defile himself with a portion of the king’s meat, nor the wine which he drank; John the

Baptist who told the king it was unlawful for him to live with His brother’s wife. Stephen’s death was

occasioned by the faithful and uncompromising manner in which he preached the Gospel to the

betrayers and murderers of Christ. Paul, who finished his course, kept the faith, and was

uncompromising, said there was a crown of righteousness laid up for him, and not for him only, but

also for all who love Christ’s appearing. “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable,

always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the

Lord.”



Pilgrim Holiness Advocate

Vol. XV – February 7, 1935 – No. 5



05 WAR AND RUMORS OF WAR

George Beirnes

Yesterday I picked up our local newspaper The Owen Sound Times, written by a German, Pierre Van

Paassen. He was writing about Langemarck – what Ypres is to pilgrims from England, Langemarck is

to the Germans. There are the great graveyards of the foot regiments of the Prussian Guard.

Delegations of German peace societies went there, in years gone by, to swear amidst the innumerable

wooden crosses “Nie Wieder Krieg!” (Never again war!) and to make a solemn vow to work with all

their energy to prevent a return of the ghastly business of 1914-1918. [World War I] The writer goes on

to state that now German peace societies do not send any more delegations.

They have been imprisoned, while a new Germany, under a hard and cruel taskmaster, [Hitler] is

drilling troops. Still some Germans visit there. One aged couple was there in search for a grave. He

states: “We stood together reading a weatherworn proclamation on a post, nailed up there by a

delegation from the Reich. The Proclamation said:

“’What the War Has Cost: Soldiers known dead, 10 million; missing, 3 million; civilians, 13 million;

wounded, 20 million; orphaned, 9 million; famine-stricken children, 34 million; widowed, 5 million;

homeless refugees, 10 million; influenza deaths, 15 million.

“’War Bills: Allies, 100 billion; U. S. A., 40 billion; Germany, 60 billion dollars; property loss, 37

billion; loss in production, 44 billion; loss to neutrals, 2 billion; capitalized value of lives lost, 67

billion. Grand total, $350,000,000,000 (three hundred and fifty billion dollars)!’”

This took my attention. I have read facts and figures similar to these before, and they are thought

provoking. Some people are still searching for the cause of the depression, and yet some people, yes,

many, inspired by Satan will, if they can have their way, start this all over again.

According to authentic reports the armament factories all over the world are working day and night

getting ready for another great world war. The strange thing about it is that many of our statesmen,

politicians, and high church officials have purchased large shares and by so doing are lending their

influence to a business that will give to this world in the near future the most dreadful blood bath it has

ever known. [What became known as World War II] But this again is prophecy. We have the League of

Nations, the Kellogg Peace Pact, and the Three Power Pact. What for? Supposedly to prevent war, but

it is all camouflaged. All the major nations are vying with each other in preparation for war.

Mussolini, Premier of Italy, is starting in to train and drill the entire male population from eight to

thirty-six years of age for war. He states that Fascism is the will to power and empire.

Here is a brief summary of his views:

Fascism opposes Pacifism because it does not believe perpetual peace is possible.

Fascism is the will to power and empire.

The Fascist education is toward combat. The opposite of expansion is decadence. Rising people are

imperialistic; only dying people go in for renunciation. Pacifism implies renouncement of struggle; war

brings human energies to their full force. Any doctrine based on the prejudice in favor of peace is

extraneous of Fascism.

These are some of Benito’s doctrines and the world knows about them. We can see how dangerous they

are. If he can carry out his plan he will revive the ancient Roman Empire.

Jesus said, “Ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars ... Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom

against kingdom ... These are the beginning of sorrows.” Read also Jer. 25:15-33.

Note verses 26, 29, and 33. Read also Isaiah 34, Rev. 14:14-20. Here is prophecy of world war and

slaughter on such a universal and world-wide scale that will cause the last world war to pale into

insignificance. Today Joel 2:9, 10 is having its literal fulfillment. “Prepare for war. Wake up the mighty

men. Let all the men of war draw near; let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords, and your

pruning hooks into spears.” Surely the words of Jesus are about to come to pass, “For in those days

shall be affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created unto this time,

neither shall be.” -- Mark 13:19, 20.

The world has been recently shocked by the assassination of King Alexander of Yugoslavia and Louis

Barthou, Foreign Minister of France. Just what effect this will have, the future alone will determine, but

perhaps the match has been struck that will start another European if not a world war. (written in 1935)

It has sent a chill of fear though Europe.

Pilgrim Holiness Advocate

Vol. XV – February 7, 1935 – No. 5



06 HOW TO SUCCEED – GOD’S WAY AND FULL OF OBEDIENCE

R. G. Finch

It is tragic for an individual to be too dull to see and obey God’s highway of holiness and success, but it

is far more heart-breaking when this malady seizes a whole church.

God calls to victory and overcoming – this is not defeat. He declares we are delivered out of the hands

of our enemies which, I believe, includes every root and shoot of carnality as well as demon or human

foes. I believe this because the next words in this verse declare our service to Him is without fear. How

impossible it is to serve with a fear that some carnal trait may spring up like a tiger, or that a demon

may accuse, or that a human foe may expose some blunder or mistake.

Full salvation means holiness inside and righteousness outside, and both will show right out before God

all the days of our lives. “For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a

sound mind.”

This is God’s standard for His church. This is what satisfies the heart and life. This is what we Pilgrims

either already possess or are hungry for. Obedience to God’s will puts any honest soul right in the

middle of the above text with victory on the inside and outside.

A lot of folks are trying to prove that their hardships and sadness, as well as defeats in private life,

home life, and church life, are marks of persecution, or of the enemy’s opposition, or of people’s

misunderstandings; whereas in most cases, if not all, it is because God’s plan, God’s standards, and His

will are either ignored or not understood. If the latter is the cause, much suffering may be the Spirit

doing His best to give light.

“If reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.”

What does reproach amount to when one is so immersed in the spirit of glory and of God that he is

happy in the midst of it?

My dear reader, the defeats so prevalent in the home and church today are not marks of devotion, but

result because the revelation given by God through His Word, reveals, and other workings of the Spirit

are neglected or rejected.

God’s obedient church is powerful, fearless, lovely, and has a sound mind. God’s children have a smile

in their souls and obey Him one hundred per cent, and in turn God spreads a table before them in the

presence of their enemies.

If time and space permitted, I should name several vital points in which the church is missing God’s

mind and will. As it is, I shall name just one. It is, however, the one causing degeneration faster,

perhaps than several others combined. -- the one which no doubt grieves His great heart most and

wounds Jesus deepest.

It is wonderful to build hospitals and to relieve suffering bodies; it is good to give clothes to beggars, it

is right to look after the old folk, and it is Biblical to care for the orphans; but all of these, as good as

they are, do not compare with the greatest of all – the reaching of souls, reaching lost humanity who

would better starve by far than to be lost in soul.

Beloved, I wish I could say it with thunder voice which would wake up every sleepy soul and church. I

wish I could get a lot of sufferers, bodily, financially, and spiritually, to see that God means what He

says when He promises power – the power so many hunger for, the power churches sadly admit that

they need. Not only does He promise power, but grace and victory which will sweep away fear and

weakness of individuals as well as churches. Yea, He goes a step farther and declares He has all power

and will Himself go with any individual or church that will become one hundred per cent missionary.

No doubt one of the most dangerous breaks a person or a church can make with Divinity is to fail to

obey Him along missionary lines.

There is no such thing as a true church without this. Throbbing, life-giving department known as the

missionary work. There is no possibility of excusing this responsibility by finding so many home

demands that there is no time nor place for Foreign Missions. The person or church neglecting

missionary activities degenerates more rapidly than by neglecting almost any other item making up a

live church. This alone proves God’s interest and demand for same.

In Acts 1:8 the Word declares the fact that the third person of the Trinity (God Himself) coming into a

person causes him to witness to the ends of the earth. When neglect along this line shows tip, it is an

evidence that the person or church never did have this baptism, or has lost it.

God keeps His “shalls” and He declares here a most emphatic and clear “shall” so that it is plain

enough that a wayfaring man, though he be a fool, need not err. Folk filled with this Spirit shall see that

the truth goes constantly to the end of the earth, Glory to God forever!

I am so thankful the Headquarters Office is pleading for weekly prayer meetings and monthly

offerings. Besides this, in the church where the writer is pastor, a missionary talk is given almost every

Sunday between the Sunday School hour and the preaching service. This is looked forward to by young

and old. It has a throb which draws and holds the people. Children are getting a missionary schooling

which will tell in later years.



Pilgrim Holiness Advocate

Vol. XV – February 7, 1935 – No. 5



07 QUESTIONABLE CONDUCT

Editorial by H. J. Olsen

“What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind? A man clothed in soft

raiment? A prophet?” Matt. 11:7-9.

Three questions that Jesus asked the multitude that had attended the revival of John the Baptist suggest

there may have been three distinct motives that moved them to attend the meetings conducted by the

Wilderness Evangelist. The reed that was so easily moved by the wind is believed to serve as an

illustration of unstable minds who are changed by every wind of new doctrine, or every new religion;

the soft clothing or princely dress of some church workers is the chief attraction by many who attend

church; finally, there were some who were waiting for God to raise up a true prophet after 400 years of

silence, that is pointing out to us today that there are sincere worshippers who are searching for the

truth.

After a neighbor, an acquaintance of long standing, had been reclaimed in a revival meeting, this

question was asked: “With the light and experience that you have enjoyed in past years, how could you

get the consent of your mind to unite with the most fashionable church in town?” The answer was: “We

knew we were without salvation and we concluded so long as we joined church for just worldly

advantage we might as well join the one that would give us the most prestige from a worldly

standpoint.” That was an honest confession and describes the condition of thousands who are merely

marking time in religion. They started going to meeting when John conducted his revival along the

Jordan. They went because there was a big crowd. They wondered if their social standing would induce

John to give them seats “up front.” They felt sure if they could induce John to baptize them they would

get their names in the papers. [so to speak] But John was keen-sighted to list them as society folks. He

called his reporter and gave orders to list them as a “generation of vipers.” He warned them faithfully

against the damnation of hell.

But the first question of Jesus was concerning the followers of the “reed shaken by the wind” -- the

group that never take their religion seriously enough to become settled in their conviction. When

someone says “Lo, here is Christ,” they are ready to leave on the first train. Jesus warns us so faithfully

in the Gospels that there is no ground to be deceived by Russellism, Eddyism, Mormonism, or any

other false religious cult. What if they do report healings, and wonders and signs, -- these are the very

earmarks of the false religion that Jesus so faithfully warns us would come, especially in the last days.

When moral standards of religious leaders have been so lowered that marriage vows are ignored,

homes broken up, promiscuous divorce and remarriage sanctioned, even the shaking-reed followers

should get their eyes open to the mire that is about to engulf them.

When ministers who have made the rounds of the orthodox denominations, or as many as were gullible

enough to take them in, come to our conventions and loudly sing our praise, then turn and abuse other

churches that they are leaving “because at last they have found the true people of God ...” well, it is not

necessary to even take them in on probation – it is just a temporary bending of the reed that has no

stability because its roots are in the mud. We must, however, in fairness to conscientious men who are

walking in God’s own light, make allowance for such as seeking for the true way. They should not be

put in the class that make up the religious driftwood that Jesus pointed out by His question concerning

the floaters that attended John’s meeting in the wilderness.

Then there are the truth seekers. They are the salt of the earth. When they heard the sound of John’s

voice, and caught his first exhortation to repent, they were anxious to attend every service.

There were no complaints about the way being too narrow; their prayer was that they might find the

narrow way that led to life. Here they were listening to the words of Jesus and heard the commendation

of the Master with the assurance that John was even greater than any prophet before him. They may be

found among the holy people today. They carry the responsibility of the Lord’s work all through the

year. Spectacular services may be staged under new and deceptive names, but you will find them at

their posts of duty the year around. You cannot even make camp-meeting floats of them, for they know

the value of the local work, and are not willing to sacrifice the home church for mere thrills that would

only bring blessing to their own souls, while their neighbors at home were starving for the bread of life.



Pilgrim Holiness Advocate

Vol. XVI – March 26, 1936 – No. 13



08 DESPERATION WINS

E. E. Shelhamer

In Mark 10:46-52 we have a remarkable picture. Here sits blind Bartimaeus by the wayside begging. I

gather four thoughts from this scene:

First, he cries: “Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me.” He is physically blind. This is very sad –

to be shut up in a world of midnight darkness. But there is another kind of blindness – mental

blindness, which is just as sad or perhaps worse. Many people have good eyes, but they are in dense

darkness when it comes to having a mental perception of true values. But even this is not as sad as to be

spiritually blind; so blind that one cannot see truth in its true setting. Thousands of church members and

preachers are saying prayers and trying to “serve the Lord in their own weak way,” who have never

been quickened by the Holy Spirit. They are bright and intellectual, but are blind to deep spiritual

things.

Second, when this poor beggar began to cry, “many charged him that he should hold his peace; but he

cried the more a great deal, Thou son of David, have mercy on me.” He cast to the winds the opinions

of his friends. No doubt it was a strange sight to see a man sitting, rolling his useless eyeballs, and

calling out at the top of his voice for help. But he never would have received recognition from the Lord

had it not been for his desperation. If some people who are overly nice could forget themselves and

their surroundings, they might get definite victory.

Third. “Jesus stood still, and commanded him to be called. And they called the blind man, saying unto

him, Be of good comfort, rise; he calleth thee.” Here we see faith in action. What wonderful hope must

have arisen in his breast when he actually had stopped the procession and became the central figure.

“Jesus stood still;” and they all stood still to pay attention to one poor, pleading beggar. “Rise, he

calleth thee!” What hope, what inspiration, what surging emotion!

Fourth, “And he, casting away his garment, rose, and came to Jesus. And Jesus answered and said unto

him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive

my sight. And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole.

And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way.

See! He cast aside his garment. No need for his filthy old rags now; he forsakes all. But, blessed be

God, he also receives all, for now, with good eyes and a ready mind, he follows Jesus in the way. I

imagine he was a prominent figure from that time on, testifying to his relatives and neighbors that he

need no longer sit by the wayside begging, for he was a new creature from head to foot.

Oh, precious soul, are your eyes blind and, to say the least, are you incapacitated? Must you spend all

your time thinking for self? “Rise, he calleth thee!” Get a new touch, get a new vision, and henceforth

instead of begging and pleading for old self, go forth to plead for others.

Instead of being an in-taker, be an out-putter; instead of being a consumer be a producer.



From The Children’s Page

Pilgrim Holiness Advocate

Vol. XVI – March 26, 1936 – No. 13



09 HABIT – LEARN TO DO WELL

The word habit comes from a Latin. Word meaning “to have.” We usually say a habit is the result of

doing one thing so many times, that one gets to doing the thing without the act being consciously

directed by the brain.

“Learning to do well” requires effort at first with continually keeping at it until it becomes a habit in

our lives. We usually say he or she has a habit of doing so and so. I said the word means “to have” and

one may “have” a habit, and sometimes the habit may “have” the individual. It takes a great deal of

effort to break one’s self of a habit, because the habit has him. It is like a strong chain about him, which

holds him fast. I have known young people to begin to say a sharp word or phrase, just one time; then

the mind brought the word up again and it was said, and again it was said, until it was said “without

thinking.” That was not a very bad habit but it was hard to break for it had become the strong band.

I knew a young man who said he had a habit of taking a “contrary side” to every question in

conversation; he may “break” himself of this habit, I do not know.

There are good habits, too. A girl learns to do well by attending strictly to duty. She can learn to smile

or be pleasant when there are unpleasant things to be done. Learn to speak well of everyone. Learn to

use proper language. Learn to be mindful of the sick and needy. Learn to help your teacher by being

quiet. Learn to go to Sunday School and church service. Learn God’s Word and learn to mind Him.

You often see people “cutting across lots.” Where they do this a narrow strip of grass about a foot or

fourteen inches wide will soon be trodden to death, and a narrow strip of ground, about the same width,

beneath it will be trodden hard, and that is a path. It is made by being walked over again, and again,

and again. You can get into the habit of doing things by doing them over and over again. The more you

do it the easier it will become, just as a path grows wider and plainer the more it is traveled. It is hard to

keep people from going across lots after a path is once made; and so it is hard to stop doing what we

have fallen into the habit of doing. It will not be easy to learn to do well after you have once learned to

do wrong.

I once read of an old man who had crooked fingers. When he was young his fingers were limber, and

he could open them easily. For fifty years he drove a stage, and his fingers got so in the habit of

shutting down on the lines and whip that they finally stayed shut.

Boys, if you do not wish to fall into the habit of swearing, refuse to swear at all. If you do not wish to

become the slaves of tobacco, let cigarettes alone. If you do not wish to die a drunkard, leave tippling

[drinking alcoholic drinks] alone. If you do these things a few times they may become habits and hold

you fast. “Learn to do well.”

An incident was once told to illustrate the force of habit. It is said to be true. A tank just outside a

building was kept full of water for accommodation of passersby and neighborhood stock; a cow

accustomed to drink at this tank, came for her morning drink. The valley this time was covered with

water, and stood within two or three inches of the top of the tank: but the cow went over the waste of

waters to the tank. Twice she stuck in the mud, and appeared to be in danger of drowning; but by

persistence she finally reached the tank. After drinking long and copiously, she turned about and slowly

made her way to land, apparently satisfied that she had done the only available thing to find water.



Pilgrim Holiness Advocate

Vol. XVI – March 26, 1936 – No. 13



10 JESUS MET MY NEED

I was born and reared in the Catholic faith. From earliest childhood I was inclined to live a good life,

and always there was a craving in my heart for something that seemed always just beyond my grasp.

But that hunger was not satisfied until in January, 1935. All through the day on the preceding Christmas

some strange power seemed to be drawing me out of myself. I understand now that it was the sweet

power of Christ drawing me by the cords of Divine love. His love was the irresistible something that

had been leading me all my life. I began reading the Advocates that had been brought to the people

with whom I make my home, and through them I became convicted of sin. Then the pastor of the

Pilgrim Holiness Church in this town, while visiting these people, became interested in my salvation.

Other ministers had asked me if I was saved, but Brother Hamm asked me if I “wanted” to be saved. I

promised to go to his home soon to have him and his wife pray with me. I made an effort to pray, but it

was a very feeble one. I had already forsaken my sins and laid my all on the altar, but I lacked real

faith. Brother Hamm asked me to repeat the first few lines of “Just as I am,” and as I said the words, “O

Lamb of God, I come,” the love, mercy and pardon of Jesus swept over my soul like the billows of a

mighty ocean. I knew my heart was covered by the blood of Jesus.

I soon became conscious of a need of more of God’s righteousness and sought to be sanctified. At first I

did not understand, and my faith failed, but one day in February, alone in my room, I took God at His

Word. How wonderful was the blessing He showered upon me. I was lifted to my feet in joy. I laughed

and wept, praised the Lord, and then fell on my knees and praised Him more. I felt my whole soul was

shaken with the power of God. How wonderful is His love!

Oh, if only men, women and children could realize in these days of trouble when they are crying,

“Peace, peace, and there is no peace, that the strong Rock, Christ Jesus, is their only safe refuge! -- that

His Blood is their only safe covering! He is a Friend who never fails. My hunger is satisfied and my

heart filled with love for my Savior. I have a determination to press my way, with God’s help, to

mansions in the skies. My whole life is yielded to His will. I enjoy reading the Advocate very much,

and send this testimony hoping that it may reach some poor wanderers in sin, as I was, and help them to

find the Savior and partake of His love and mercy. -- Margaret La Blanc, N. Y.



Pilgrim Holiness Advocate

Vol. XVIII – January 6, 1938 – No. 1



11 MODERATION

George Beirnes, Evangelist, Ontario District

“Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.” -- Phil. 4:5.

The scripture here quoted is an injunction, or exhortation, in view of the imminent coming of the Lord

that we will do well to remember and constantly put into practice.

In looking up the meaning of the word “moderation” I find that the translators have rendered it in many

different ways, and I find that all the meanings are very striking. In this article I shall try to give you

just a few of them. The marginal reading of one study-bible renders “gentleness” as an alternative

translation of “moderation,” and this is listed by Paul in Gal. 5:22 as a fruit of the Spirit. Lest he should

exhort his hearers or readers to something he himself did not put into practice, writing to the

Thessalonians he said, “We were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children,” and

David said, “Thy gentleness hath made me great.” If we are lacking here we are lacking in grace. Yes,

very often among many professing a high state of Christian experience, some are very low if not

entirely lacking in this grace.

Then again, it is rendered, “your forbearing spirit,” and so to the Ephesians he exhorts that they “walk

worthy of the vocation wherewith [they] are called, forbearing one another in love, forbearing and

forgiving one another even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven [them].” Now that word “forbear”

means to be patient and mild, to refrain in taking any hasty action toward another.

Let love rule. Dr. Strong has it rendered “mildness, patience.” Now that means patience with the “imp”

[as in “imp”atience] gone from it, and mildness means that the cold cutting winds and frosts of below

zero and freezing are gone. The balmy breezes of grace flow out from your heart and soul and lips.

Dr. Young renders it “yieldingness.” This is what Jesus said: “If a man sue thee at the law and takes

away thy coat, give him thy cloak also; and whoso shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.”

Jesus Himself was brought as a lamb to the slaughter.

I remember an occasion in a district assembly where they voted for more than a whole day -- I think

twenty-six times. Neither candidate would yield. I went to one in the midst of this, and advised him to

withdraw, but he did not, and he was finally elected. Suffice it to say that I received no calls to

evangelize on his district. Where it is not infringing upon conscience it is often good to yield even if

you feel you are in the right. Even Christ pleased not Himself. We have far too many headstrong

Christians (?) determined to have their own way. Paul exhorts us all to be subject one to another, and

especially the younger to the elder.

Then this word [moderation] is rendered “godly clemency,” I. e., showing mercy. “Blessed are the

merciful for they shall obtain mercy,” and again, “With the merciful thou wilt show thyself merciful.”

The law demands punishment but often it is best to forbear threatening and judgment, and to love and

forgive.

And then again, it is rendered “unselfish spirit.” Selfishness is listed among the sure traits of carnality.

The world and the church are torn today by strife because of selfishness. They are trying to corner the

market for personal gain. “Love seeketh not her own” but rather the welfare of others. Selfishness must

please itself, but lets the other fellow suffer.

By Butler it is rendered, “Let not your liberty degenerate into licentiousness.” We are called to liberty,

but we must not forget that our liberty ends where the right of another begins.

Another has rendered it “your Christlike spirit,” and He was declared to be the Son of God with power

in the Spirit of holiness. Paul said, “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his.” There

was one time a frail little lad, the son of a poor widowed mother, was selling fruit on the street. A big

ruffian ran along, knocking the lad and his fruit over. A kindly gentleman, noticing it, came and picked

up the basket, wiped the fruit with his handkerchief, placed it in the basket, and then gave the boy fifty

cents. The little fellow looked up into the stranger’s face and said, “Mister, are you Jesus?” That deed

was like the good Samaritan. The Lord help us to be more Christlike!

Again, I looked at that word “moderation” in the dictionary and this is what it said, “The act of

moderating, or the quality or state of being moderate; one who restrains or regulates; a moderator, or

presiding officer of a meeting.” Numbers of religious denominations have a Moderator. He always

presides at a conference. How many times on a conference floor some question comes up – matters of

conscience, or matters upon which the Christian world has always had a diversified opinion – and it

becomes the moderator’s duty to guide the assembly in the keeping of a due mien between the two

extremes. The Lord keep us in the middle of the road!

Dr. Talmage says, “There are two kinds of sermons which I never want to preach. One is that which

presents God so kind, so indulgent, so lenient, so imbecile, that men may do what they will against Him

and fracture His every law, and put the cry of their impertinence and rebellion under His throne and

then, while they are spitting in His face and stabbing at His heart, He takes them up in His arms and

kisses their infuriated brow and cheek saying, ‘Of such is the kingdom of heaven.’ The other kind of

sermon I never want to preach is the one that represents God as all fire and torture and thunder-cloud

with a red-hot pitch-fork tossing the human race into paroxysms of infinite agony rather than a God of

loving, kindly warning, seeking to save the lost from coming wrath, a God who has no pleasure in the

death of the wicked and delights in showing mercy and dealing with men in grace.”

Let your moderation be known unto all men, and He would put the emphasis “unto all”. The Lord is at

hand! “Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.”



Pilgrim Holiness Advocate

Vol. XVIII – January 6, 1938 – No. 1

12 I CAN’T AFFORD IT

E. E. Shelhamer

We frequently hear the expression quoted above, but it generally pertains to money matters.

Let us now apply it to spiritual values.

I can’t afford to neglect secret prayer, for here is where I take on strength and am fortified against

sudden and subtle attacks from men and devils.

I can’t afford to hear or speak evil for, if I only realized it, I am stepping down to a lower plane and

doing myself a greater injury than the other party

I can’t afford to write a cutting letter for, the more I fight my own battles the less God will defend me.

If I want the job He will step aside and give it to me, but in the end I will be the loser.

I can’t afford to lend my eyes or ears to an unseemly thing for, years later, Satan may take delight in

recalling it by flaunting the thing before the soul’s vision, even while I am in the attitude of prayer.

I can’t afford to give less than I ought for, though it eases the conscience, my soul is shriveled and I

limit God in working miracles. “The liberal soul shall be made fat; and he that watereth shall be

watered also himself.”

I can’t afford to think an ignoble thought for, though it be unknown, yet the harboring of the same may

so weaken the power of resistance as to lead to something more serious. Rule thy thoughts lest they

ruin thee!

I can’t afford to get out of Divine order and go here or there at my own choosing for the unlikely place

may be God’s place, and the small crowd may be the crowd where a mighty minister or missionary

may be in the making.

I can’t afford to waste precious time for idleness leads to lecherous living. This was what ruined

Sodom. “Pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters; neither

did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty and committed abomination

before me; therefore I took them away as I saw good.”

I can’t afford to trifle with the first suggestion to do evil. There are four steps to the downfall of every

man; viz, Attention, Consideration, Gratification and Degradation. I am as innocent as an angel, though

my attention (like Eve or Joseph), may be called to a thing. But if I dare to do as did David or Judas,

consider it for a moment, then sin lieth at the door. Oh, that men could see that a fleeting, earthly profit

or pleasure is not worthy to be compared with a lasting peace of mind, where there is no reaction or

remorse.

I can’t afford to become distant or pull off in spirit from any of my brethren, yes, even from opposers,

for this may give place to pride and thus hinder us from being a blessing to each other. I must not, for a

moment, allow myself to think or speak of their faults as being greater than mine. If they feel it their

duty to reprove or contradict me, and I take it well, this will only enlarge and enrich me so that in the

end I will be the winner. What a pity, then, if on my deathbed I find that I defended my position to my

own hurt.

Dear Lord, save me from an exalted opinion of myself!



Pilgrim Holiness Advocate

Vol. XVIII – January 6, 1938 – No. 1

13 OPEN WINDOWS

By Mel T. Rothwell, Evangelist of the Michigan District

A chamber is a private room of the home, a place for meditation, rest and relaxation. We seek the

privacy of that chamber when we desire separation from the world, and communion with our souls and

consciences.

It is there we think our most serious thoughts, and those meditations which eventually fashion our

lives; for it is the thoughts of the heart that figure prominently in the culture and conduct of the

individual – his life here, his destiny hereafter. It is there the soul holds communion with the Eternal.

Consequently, the thoughts of that chamber follow us, they constitute our lives, finally, and they give

character, meaning, force and direction to our present deeds.

From the tenth verse of the sixth chapter of Daniel we conclude that Daniel’s chamber was a place of

prayer – and the windows were open toward Jerusalem. Part of this verse states that “his windows

being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem ... he prayed.” When the Jew was away from his beloved

holy city he turned his face toward it while he prayed. When in Jerusalem, he prayed facing the temple.

Jerusalem is a type of Heaven. When a twice-born soul prays, the windows are open toward Jerusalem

– Heaven.

It is the protracted endeavor of many, trying desperately to get the windows open, that steals beauty and

virtue from public and private prayer. They pry frantically with the crowbars of vim, volume and

velocity and dribble in a few drops of hallelujah oil to facilitate the process at the places where it sticks,

rubs and screeches. After a hard battle, constituted mostly of words and perspiration, the victim-listener

decides that probably the prayer did not succeed and the windows are still shut.

When a new-born soul prays the windows are open and the heart cooperates in the prayer.

There is freshness, sacredness and heavenly quality that energizes the hearts of those about. One can

seemingly reach forth the hand and touch God in the atmosphere created and inspired.

If communion is prevented or interrupted, there is unquestionably something wrong. There may be an

intervention from a contrary, evil source, or the “praying mechanism” maybe out of focus or operation.

When the trouble arises in evil bounds and preys on the petitioner, that tested soul can but wait and

trust through the darkness until God clears the way. But, if the disorder results from faulty praying

mechanism – insincere motives, a bad conscience, or sinful living -then the individual must make the

proper adjustment, for more praying, added words, or longer waiting will not remedy the situation. It

must be “handled by hand.”

To pray with definiteness and faith, one must have a conscience void of offence toward God and man.

The condition requiring restitution can be a blessing or a blight, depending, of course, on the

disposition of the case. A restitution made is a triumph for inspiration and faith. One unmade, yet

pressing, is a subtle underground fire that burns to a crisp the roots of integrity and faith. Prayer cannot

atone for wrongs to our fellow men. Prayer can obtain a favorable adjustment in any relationship

between God and a soul, alone; but our fellow men cannot understand our motives until we have

justified those motives by making any necessary adjustment with them to rectify the wrong. Man will

only understand and sympathize as far as we go, and no farther. If it requires begging of forgiveness for

a mean word or unkind deed, or even involves the tangible reimbursement of money, why question,

why falter? It must be done if we are to enjoy the confidence of all – a positive requisite if the

conscience is to be made and kept void of offence toward man, as well as God. Restitution will

facilitate prayer and inspire faith.

Then, carnality tampering with the will prevents or breaks contact with God, which is vital in effective

prayer. It hinders faith’s Heavenward flight and attempts to block the flow of grace from the throne to

the soul. It proposes and suggests false and fanatical ideas and theories, and stands ready to

misrepresent God’s motives, as well as man’s. It challenges God’s leadings and offers a deadly

substitute. It challenges the attitudes and efforts of friends and accuses them of harmful intent. It

blankets every deed, word and thought in dismal pessimism and proffers unscriptural, unchristian and

unsound methods. It stands at the bar of life to argue sin’s case favorably, excusing maximum guilt in

sin’s behalf, and endeavors to bribe and influence the will and intellect into questionable decisions

against the Bible, Providence, reason and righteousness.

While engaged as a reporter on a newspaper, I heard the chairman of the crime commission of one of

the country’s largest cities declare that crime could be stamped out almost over night, if it were not for

the criminality and subversive tendencies of prosecuting attorneys, lawyers, judges and district

attorneys. The possibility of bribe and influence has saved thousands of criminals from penal confines

or the electric chair. Lawyers, criminals themselves, argue for the clemency or liberty of law to acquit a

dyed-in-the-wool killer, or public enemy. He will accuse, discredit and condemn every agency against

his client, and will uphold, excuse and justify every process or plea that will liberate the criminal.

Carnality is like that – wise and wicked.

Usually a “chip off the old block” offspring of carnality is carelessness. Faith withers before the

presence and knowledge of careless conduct. The husband, wife, children, loved ones and neighbors

are unsaved, to be sure, but careless living has destroyed your influence and nullified faith’s mighty

force in your heart. Carelessness in the home, neighborhood, church, shop or office has written tragedy

on your door and bolted the windows of your once glorious secret chamber. The fresh fragrance of

Heaven has been replaced by that foul density peculiar to a closed shop or a deserted cellar. A sign in a

meat shop amused me, for it read: “Foul: Chickens At Reduced Prices.” The merchant had not noticed

that the sign painter had misspelled one word, fowl. I asked him, after drawing his attention to it, if he

was not afraid some one would ask for a “rank” chicken. Some spiritual merchants have attractive

display, but there is always something that gives the secret away, and instead of being a blessing their

lives are but laughing-stocks.

Carelessness, my friend, has wrought the change – a gossip at the ladies’ prayer-meeting, a braggart at

the men’s prayer-meeting.

In this day of apostasy, are the windows open, my friend? Is the line up? If you had loved ones stranded

in a flood area, and the wires were down, you would expend energy and money to reach them in

telegraphic or personal contact. Your lost soul, embittered with sin and revenge, is stranded in a world

of hate, sin and death, and the wires are down, the windows are shut. Will you not arouse yourself and

get a message through?



Pilgrim Holiness Advocate

Vol. XVIII – January 6, 1938 – No. 1



14 IMPORTANCE OF OUR CHURCH COVENANT

Charles L. Stout

If we as Pilgrims would take time to look for ourselves, we could very easily see that our church

covenant is the backbone of our church. It is not only a promise to man and the church, but a promise

to the God whom we serve. No church or any organization can be at its best and not have a standard to

come up to, or something to strive for.

We can see in the preamble of our national Constitution that we, as the people of the United States, in

order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the

common defense, promote general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our

posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. If we as Americans

have all this to strive for in our country, I am sure that we as Pilgrims have much to strive for in our

church.

First, we must strive for a clean church where God can bless; and if we have a clean church, we must

have a covenant that denounces all sin for no one is eligible for membership who does not abstain from

evil.

Second, our covenant is important because it requires faithfulness. If it takes faithfulness to run

business, surely it takes faithfulness to run our church. A covenant helps us to feel our obligation to the

church.

Third, it is important because it helps us all to pull our work to one end. If we did not have a covenant

there would be danger of division in the church.

Fourth, a covenant is important because it requires liberality. No man or woman is worthy of being a

Pilgrim who does not want to contribute liberally and cheerfully to the support of the church, to the

spread of the Gospel throughout the world, and to the relief of the poor.

Fifth, it is important because it urges everyone to maintain family and secret devotion.

Sixth, it is important because it insists that everyone endeavor to bring their children to an

acknowledgment of Christ and saving grace in early life, and give them a guarded Christian education.

Seventh, it is important because it warns us to walk circumspectly in the world, to be just in our

dealings, faithful in our engagement, and to keep our tongue from backbiting, tattling, evil-speaking,

from unprofitable and frivolous conversation, and to be exemplary in our deportment.

Eighth, it is important because it tells us how to dress – not in such a way that we would be the

laughing stock of the town, nor like the world where someone would be ashamed of us when in public

for our nude apparel, but to dress godly according to 1 Peter 3:3, 4, with a meek and quiet spirit, which

is in the sight of God of great price.

Ninth, our covenant is important because it requires every lay-member and minister to promise to do all

he can to make it easy for one another to do right and hard to do wrong. We are not to run around and

talk about one another, but to pray for each other.

Pilgrims, we must remember that when we took the church covenant we promised to do all this.



Pilgrim Holiness Advocate

Vol. XVIII – January 6, 1938 – No. 1



15 NEWS AND COMMENTS ON RELIGION

William H. Neff

CRUDEN’S CONCORDANCE – An exchange calls our attention to the fact that this year marks the

200th anniversary of the famous work of Alexander Cruden, the Cruden’s Concordance.

It required 3 years to complete the work. It traces 130,000 words throughout the Scriptures. Many a

minister has thanked God for this good work.

CHURCHES WITHOUT A FULL-TIME PASTOR --The Religious Digest reports 85,000 churches in

the United States without a full-time pastor. Tithing by the members would provide funds for pastors in

most of these churches. To say that there are no open doors for God-called workers in the light of the

foregoing statistics is ridiculous, and indicates a refusal to accept the opportunities for service which

this day of spiritual decadence affords.

NORTHWEST NAZARENE COLLEGE REFUSED AD SPACE IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TIMES

– The Sunday School Times refused recently to give advertising space to the Northwest Nazarene

College. The action is surprising since both enterprises are commonly known as fundamental in

doctrine. The Times “cannot feel free to carry the advertising ... because it does not believe that the

sinful nature of man is completely eradicated by the baptism of the Holy Spirit nor that a man may be

lost after he has been truly saved ...” [OLD CALVINISTIC DOCTRINE] Evidently the deduction of

the Times’ editors is that to accept this advertising would be to propagate what they believe to be false

doctrine. (Formerly, baptism of the Holy Spirit meant entering His Rest -now the dreadful Durhamite

interpretation was coming to be the common understanding in which no entire sanctification was

believed in. Everybody is sinful, and nobody obtains a pure heart. NNC was being banned for still

believing that heart-purity may be obtained! Earnest Seeker)

“THE LEAGUE OF HALLUCINATIONS” -- Thus speaks Lord Hewart of England concerning the

League of Nations. Nobly conceived, it has nevertheless been an impotent instrument in the interests of

world peace. And recent developments in European diplomacy (Italy, Germany, and Japan’s non-

participation) point to the League’s complete disbandment. The chicanery and duplicity and suspicion

of the human heart make it difficult to incorporate the fine idealism embodied in the framework of the

League into the field of government relations.

THE PROTESTANT RADIO LEAGUE – The Rev. Morris Zeidman of Toronto has just resumed his

broadcasts as director of The Protestant Radio League. He is an earnest, clear speaker who “does not

apologize for preaching to non-Protestants, Jews and Gentiles.” It is encouraging to hear a Protestant

apologist on the air these days when the press and radio are full of Catholic voices disseminating the

errors of Romanism. Wake up, sleeping Protestantism, before it is too late!

ANTI-CHRISTIAN PROPAGANDA IN GERMANY – Many native voices are protesting the anti-

Christian propaganda in Germany. The latest to raise its voice is a group of German Army Chaplains.

This action calls for courage of the highest order.



Pilgrim Holiness Advocate

Vol. XVIII – January 6, 1938 – No. 1



16 – THE FORGOTTEN DREAM

Editorial by H. J. Olsen

“Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were

of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.

“Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became

like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found

for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.”

Dan. 2:34, 35.

Some of the major events relating to the future of this world are told in the language of prophecy with

surprising exactness. Prophecy is history written before hand; history is a record of events that have

already occurred. There is strong temptation to speculate in the study of these predictions that relate to

the future of our world. The student of prophecy is in the same danger as a stock broker – apt to plunge

too far for the good of the firm he represents. There is, however, solid footing for the Christian student

that will “walk circumspectly” along the path of diligent Bible study.

Just before Judah was carried away to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, king Zedekiah shut Jeremiah up in

prison because he was warning the people that their sin would lead to captivity.

The man of God further prophesied that after seventy years Judah would be restored to her own land.

To show his faith in his predictions he purchased a farm and paid for it with “seventeen shekels of

silver.” Jer. 32:9. He did not enter into the details of their return, but he was certain they were coming

back, and that his heirs could possess the land he bought. Daniel had a vision of the far away future, but

acknowledged he did not understand all he saw. He said: “And I heard, but I understood not: Then said

I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things? And he said, Go thy way, Daniel; for the words are

closed up and sealed till the time of the end. Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the

wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.”

Dan. 12:8-10.

May we take this assurance of understanding to apply to some of the prophesies that are sufficiently

clear to direct us in our Christian activities? We are living in the day when it is the privilege of men to

be “purified”; we are claiming the merits of Christ’s blood to wash us and make us “white”; unless it

can be proven we are unduly pessimistic then we would say that the saints of our day are subjected to

severe tests and are truly “tried.”

1. We may be perfectly assured that the “stone” in the forgotten dream is none other than Jesus, in His

second personal return to the earth. He hinted when He was here on earth that the time would come

when “the stone rejected of you builders” would become the head of the corner.

When we read: “Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall,

it shall grind him to powder (Luke 20:18),” it sounds like the same figurative language that Daniel used

of the stone taken without hand, that struck the great image of the king’s forgotten dream.

2. It is further made clear that the governments of this world represented by the feet and toes of the

image will still be carrying on in ways of sin and wickedness when Jesus comes in judgment upon

them. This childish dreaming of a converted world under the “gradual working of the Gospel” finds

no support in the king’s dream. In one moment the image stands cast in its old original state, and in

the next moment it is brought down with a crash by the sudden impact of the hurled Stone

unassisted by human hands. The nations are one by one turning away from Christ and bowing down

to their dictators that their children are taught to revere and worship. The prophet Daniel was told

that “none of the wicked shall understand.” Their judgment shall come suddenly and unannounced.

3. It seems perfectly clear that the Church should govern her activities by these revelations from the

Word of God. If our calling is to be a witness to the whole world rather than the task of converting

all men, we should govern ourselves accordingly. If there is hope of converting the nations we

should of course begin with the rulers. In Russia, Italy, and Germany we might find it difficult to

impress the rulers with the “old, old story.” They will not even allow formal churches to carry

religious ritual in some places; what hope is there then of preaching a Gospel message “with the

Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.” Paul said “all in the palace” had heard his message, but he did

not say they had been converted. He had witnessed to them but he did not claim to have made

converts of them.

4. Some of the great religious bodies are planning on union. Is it that unity for which Jesus prayed in

the seventeenth chapter of John that they are seeking? Have these leaders clearer light than that

which Luther, Fox, Wesley, and others possessed when they launched the great soul saving agencies

that shook the world with their power? Have they overlooked the feet of the image that Daniel

interpreted to mean a world divided into many nations? That same spirit of pulling apart began in

the early Church long before the Roman Empire was divided, and ecclesiastical unity on a big scale

can never come without compromise of Christian principles.



Pilgrim Holiness Advocate

Vol. XIX – February 16, 1939 – No. 7



17 A GLORIOUS REVIVAL

William S. Deal

We are praising God for the wonderful way in which He is answering prayer and pouring out His Spirit

upon us in revival blessing. We began Christmas evening with a splendid attendance and many requests

for prayer. With a good spiritual atmosphere pervading the church, we plunged right into the fight for

souls. The splendid seven-piece string band was all tuned up and ready to go, and proved an inspiration

throughout. The fine choir of spiritual young people, singing with shining faces the full salvation

Gospel story, together with the ladies quartet rendering soul-gripping messages intermittently, have

played no small part in the gracious victories of these three blessed weeks.

On Monday night we had our first group of seekers. On Tuesday the 6:00 A. M. prayer meeting was

begun. It has been well attended and has proved a great asset to the meeting, some of the greatest

accomplishments of the time having been done here in the sanctification of our church young people.

The Workers’ Convention the first week added strength, helping us to get up extra steam for the rest of

the time. This week was mainly one of preparation, digging down, and getting settled for our own folk;

notwithstanding, many others sought the Lord, about 50 in all this week, I believe. Some who seemed

hard cases to get sanctified have plowed through to blessed victory in these services.

Among the other interesting occurrences a little Catholic lady was very beautifully saved the first week.

A few nights later she came, of her own accord, plunged into the fountain for holiness, and at the

dedication service, brought her child to be dedicated to the Lord. Her face beams with the light of her

new-found heavenly joy. The devil was stirred very visibly one night when a lady tried, it appeared, to

remove her son from the altar, but failed. But our God brought us out victoriously and it only helped us,

if anything. On another night a young man who had left the church fighting conviction was found by

Brother Phillippe nearby in such a state he could go no farther. He came into the Mission home and

prayed through. It was no trouble to get him to pray and cry; he was glad then for a chance to get help.

Others have prayed through in their homes, also.

This third week is proving the best of all. Oh, how I am enjoying singing occasionally, and preaching

nightly, to these dear hungry people. I am so glad I obeyed God and came this way just when I did

instead of waiting until later, as such a wonderful opportunity would have been lost had I waited a

month longer, since so many of our men would have been off to sea again. The weather is ideal – a land

of singing birds and blooming flowers perpetually. The crowds are fine and have been growing larger.

The people are attentive and appreciative, and God is sealing the messages of truth to hearts, stirring

souls about their condition. We have scarcely had a barren altar service.

It has taken prayer and fasting, self-denial and sacrifice on the part of all, but, oh, the blessed dividends

of immortal souls we are receiving! Their clear, ringing testimonies and shining faces are no small

reward. Sister Phillippe remarked that she couldn’t remember any meeting when so many converts had

sought the experience of holiness. Our greatest need is to get our people sanctified wholly as soon as

possible.

On Sunday morning, Jan. 8, at the close of the Sunday School, which numbered 301 without any effort

on our part to get them to come, Brother Phillippe and I dedicated 17 lovely children to the Lord. This

was followed by a blessed service with eight seeking the Lord. One encouraging feature about this

meeting is that the majority of our seekers have been young people, most of them ranging from 15 to

30, numbers of whom have been sanctified. At home or abroad, get rid of the old man if you want to go

with God!

What a joy it has been to see the long altar lined, and sometimes bedewed with penitential tears of

earnest seekers. Many people have attended this meeting who are new to our work here, and some of

them are seeking God. Up to the present we have seen 170 seekers, all told (very few repeaters, except

when seeking holiness) and we are expecting a great ingathering over the closing week-end, Jan. 15 th,

by God’s grace. We are to be at North Side church Jan. 18-26, and then sail for Jamaica on the 28 th.

Truly, the harvest is ripe here. We feel the need of another month here, but time refuses it. Pray for us

as we press on in these soul-winning campaigns.

Pilgrim Holiness Advocate

Vol. XIX – April 13, 1939 – No. 15



18 BEHAVING IN CHURCH

H. C. Morrison

One of the first lessons taught me in early childhood was that, under no circumstances, should I disturb

worship in church. It was one of the easiest lessons I ever learned. There was a plain, kindly statement

made at home that I must be a nice, quiet boy in church, that the man of God must not be annoyed

while preaching, that the attention of the people should not be distracted during worship. Along with

this instruction was the promise of severe chastisement if I did not live up to instructions given. “The

dear little thing lived up to the instruction.” It was not a difficult thing to behave in the meeting-house.

The habit soon became fixed, and with it came reverence and attention. Wise discipline is good for the

child; unfortunate the child who has its own way in the church or elsewhere. If your pastor and wife

have no more intelligence and piety than td allow their children to ramble about during service; see

your presiding elder and insist on his removal, and the coming of some one who has intelligence and

piety enough to teach their children at once that the church is not a playhouse, and that they must not

distract the service.

When we get to the house of God to worship, and time is not come for the beginning of the services,

we should sit quietly, in an attitude of reverence, and prepare ourselves to hear a message from the

Lord. Pray that the preacher may speak to us the things we ought to hear.

I have been ridiculed, and sometimes abused, because I will not allow children or grown people to

disturb public worship when I preach. I have no regret with reference to my attitude in this matter. I

have frequently assisted ministers in revival meetings who seemed perfectly willing for their children

to walk about the altar rail and in the aisles disturbing the service and attracting the people’s attention.

Such pastor and wife need not deceive themselves with the idea that the congregation is not displeased

and disgusted with such conduct.

I well remember, when a boy, sitting by my Aunt Lizzie in church. I whispered to her that I wanted a

drink of water. She whispered to me to keep still, that I could not have a drink, to which I whispered, “I

will die if I don’t get a drink,” to which she whispered, “All right, you can die.” That ended the

conversation, and I not only lived through the ordeal, but somehow her positive answer seemed to allay

my thirst.



Pilgrim Holiness Advocate

Vol. XIX – April 13, 1939 – No. 15



19 GREAT DECISIONS

Anon.

ABRAHAM

“By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an

inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.”

MOSES

“By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter;

choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a

season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect

unto the recompense of the reward.”

RUTH

“And Ruth said, entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou

goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my

God: Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more also, if

ought but death part thee and me.”

ESTHER

“Then Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer, Go, gather together all the Jews that are present

in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my

maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I

perish, I perish.”

SHADRACH, MESHACH, ABEDNEGO

“Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, 0 Nebuchadnezzar, we are not

careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the

burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto

thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.”

DANIEL

“Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his

windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day,

and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetirne.”

MATTHEW

“And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom:

and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him.”

PETER AND ANDREW

“And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his

brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will

make you fishers of men. And straightway they forsook their nets, and followed him.”

PAUL

“Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision.” -- Sel.

DYING WORDS OF REV. J. HUNT, MISSIONARY TO FIJI

One of our men lay on his deathbed. His wife and family stood around him weeping. “Why do you

weep, why are you sorrowful? You should rejoice with me. This is the day of my release. I have lived

for this day. Dry your tears. Today I go to receive my crown. Jesus is coming for me.” “O let me pray

once more for Fiji.”



Pilgrim Holiness Advocate

Vol. XX – February 1, 1940 No. 5



20 MINISTERIAL UNFAITHFULNESS

The Holiness Mission Journal

A young minister preaching very earnestly in a certain chapel, after service had to walk four or five

miles to his home along a country road. A young man who had been deeply impressed during the

sermon requested the privilege of walking with the minister, with an earnest hope that he might get an

opportunity of telling his feelings to him, and obtaining some word of guidance or comfort. Instead of

that, the young minister, all along, told the most singular tales to those who were with him, causing

loud roars of laughter. He stopped at a certain house, and this young man with him, and the whole

evening was spent in frivolity.

Some years after, when the minister had grown older, he was called to the bedside of a dying man. He

hastened hither with a heart desirous to do good. He was requested to sit down at the bedside, and the

dying man, looking at him and regarding him more closely, said to him:

“Do you remember preaching in such a village, and on such an occasion?”

“I do,” said the minister.

“I was one of your hearers,” said the man, “and I was deeply impressed by the sermon.”

“Thank God for that,” said the minister.

“Stop!” interrupted the man; “don’t thank God till you have heard the whole story. You will have

reason to alter your tone before I have done.”

The minister changed countenance; but he little guessed what would be the full extent of that man’s

testimony.

Said he, “Sir, do you remember after you had finished your sermon that I, with some others, walked

home with you? I was sincerely desirous of being led in the right path that night; but I heard you speak

in such a strain of levity, and with so much coarseness, too, that I went outside the house while you

were sitting down to your evening meal. I stamped my foot upon the ground. I said that you were a liar;

that Christianity was a falsehood; that if you could pretend to be in earnest in the pulpit and then come

down and talk like that, the whole thing must be a sham. And I have been an infidel,” said he, “a

confirmed infidel, from that day to this. But I am not an infidel at this moment. I know better. I am

dying, and about to be damned, and at the bar of God I will lay my damnation to your charge. My

blood is upon your head!” And with a dreadful shriek, and a demoniacal glance at the trembling

minister, he died.



Pilgrim Holiness Advocate

Vol. XXI – March 27, 1941 – No. 13



21 GOD FIRST

J. Maxey Walton

“Make me thereof a little cake first.” --1 Kings 17:13.

Here is a most unusual request recorded in the life of Elijah, the prophet of God. For a period of some

months past, he had been hiding down by the brook Cherith, near the Jordan. Now he suddenly

appeared again on the scene in the city of Zarephath, and made the unusual request of our text.

Had it been a time of “great plenty” -- of national prosperity – it might have been overlooked and

considered only a slight deviation from the commonplace -from the ordinary custom of the day; but the

very reverse was true. It was a time of terrible famine. People were eating mules; cattle were dying; and

everywhere people were hungry. For some time not a single cloud had appeared in the sky. The earth

was so dry that it was like powder. Wheat looked like mere stubble in the fields, and died before the

head could possibly appear or mature. Crop failures were reported everywhere in the land, and the most

distressing thing about it all was that no weather prophet could forecast just how long the drought

would last. This same Elijah had looked up to Heaven, locked up its water supply, and had run off with

the keys, so to speak; and no one knew where he was to be found.

Again, another thing which contributed to the unusualness of the request was the fact that it was

addressed to a woman. She was a heathen woman, and a widow. Besides this, it was given at the most

distressing period of her life. She had but that day reached the limit of provisional supply, and the

means to procure more, at that time, was nowhere to be found. Death by slow starvation stared her and

her two sons in the face, and the only morsel which stood between them and the “Grim Monster of the

Cemetery” was that very “little cake” which Elijah requested to be given to him. It appeared so selfish

and unfeeling on his part! “Was he not a husky man? Would he not have a better chance to survive this

terrible period of suffering than she – a widow woman, without support? And had she not but the

moment before gone to the pains to explain to him her utter destitution?” The request certainly bore the

semblance of heartlessness, especially being made at that hour, of all others.

Yes, it was unusual – extremely so! But no more so than the “unusual promise” which accompanied it.

Listen while we read: “For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither

shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth.”

God has always, down through the centuries, asked men and women to put Him and His work first in

their hearts, their lives, and their finance. But on every occasion when His request for the “little cake

first” has been made, the promise of sure blessings upon the heart, and upon the store, have always

accompanied it. Listen to the one found in Mal. 3:10, “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse ... and

I will open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there will not be room enough

to receive it.”

No man has ever “honored God” in this respect, but what God has surely “honored him.” His promises

never fail. Look at this woman of Zarephath for a moment. Had she refused to heed the unusual request

of the man of God, it is almost certain that she would have cooked her little cake, selfishly eaten it, and

would have laid down and died like the many others who were dying around her. But instead she

heeded the request, accepted the promise, and for months never experienced a hungry day. Besides the

immediate supplying of her meals, she was blessed in her own soul and has proved a blessing by her

example to millions of God’s people down through the years.

Many times the mouths of God’s people are filled with excuses for not having given to Him “first”!

“The times are so hard” or, “The living wage is so small!” The “rent” is either exorbitant, or husband is

dead, and the “wolf is at the door.” It takes all that they earn to pay expenses, so they say, and after all

the bills are paid, there is nothing left. God’s tithe (His “little cake” which He claims first) is unpaid,

sometimes for months, and even years. If such people could only see that which we are trying to press

home at this time – that it is only when the “little cake” is given first that the promises of God can be

claimed with a certainty of fulfillment. The reason that poverty stares so many people in their faces

most of their lives can be traced, in many instances, directly to the fact that they are careless about

God’s LITTLE CAKE. They just will not tithe systematically!

We know a man, living in a certain place, who is seemingly a chronic grumbler about the “hard times

he is passing through.” Every time you chance to meet him the “wolf” is either “looking in” at the door,

or has “one paw through a crack in the wall.” Poverty stares him in the face, he is never out of debt,

and his creditors are always pressing him for payments. He lives in “wit’s end corner” most of the time,

and seems never to be able to find the way completely out of his financial predicament. When pressed

for “cash,” or “the rent is due,” this man will invariably ease his conscience by excuses of “necessity,”

and withhold God’s “little cake” from Him, spending it for his own needs. His “meal” wastes over and

over again; and his “cruse of oil” fails so frequently that in order to meet his obligations he frequently

has to have recourse to his tithing friends to save himself from complete financial embarrassment. This

whole deplorable financial condition has been brought about, in the most part, by his having tried to

reverse God’s order in giving. His bills come first and God’s tithe comes last. This man, unless we are

greatly deceived in our judgment, will always be a financial failure and a trial to his tithing friends

from whom he borrows, until he learns the lesson that “God’s Word is true,” and that His order of

giving is as essential to the fulfillment of the promise as is the “little cake itself.”

We know another man and his wife who started in years ago proving God’s promises and putting Him

and His work first. The seasons have been hard at times and money has been scarce; the rent has been

due, and various bills have clamored for payment. For sixteen years, however, this couple have

scrupulously tithed their income. They have tithed all of it, and have made it a point of concern to see

that God’s part was taken out first. These people could stand up and testify, that to God’s glory, the

“meal” has never wasted and the “cruse of oil” has never failed once in sixteen years. They have paid

their rent on time (and some ahead of time) each month; they have always had food of some kind in the

house; they have seldom been in debt but if so God has never let them stay in debt long. They have

more today than they ever had before in their lives; and it seems that the more they give to God, and

His work, and His servants, the more they have to give, and the more the Lord blesses their own store.

They are happy in God, and wouldn’t for the world reverse His program of giving.

A number of years ago, my wife and I sat in the sumptuous home of a wealthy man in Richmond, Va.

He had the biggest business of its kind in that southern city, and was a devout Christian. We sat down

that day to a table so loaded with good things to eat that it seemed it ought to have groaned under the

load. We got in the finest car we had ever been in up to that time, and rolled over the boulevards for

miles. The man and his good wife were happy people, and we enjoyed sweet fellowship with them.

The wife of this man said, in conversation with my wife that day, “Sister Walton, my husband used to

be a terrible drunkard. We lived in a basement, under a house, and many times during that period in our

lives my children and I had only bread to eat that was so moldy that it was green.” Then she told about

the day when her husband got saved and quit his drinking. He soon got a job, and God was blessing

him. She said, “One day he got light on tithing, and began to give a tenth of his income to the Lord.

What you see we are enjoying today has all come to us because we have put Him first, and have been

faithful in giving our tithe to Him. He has honored husband, and keeps honoring him.”

Another time we were privileged to stay in the home of a prominent doctor down in Kentucky. His wife

and I grew up together as children in the same church. She said to my wife one day, “You know, Doctor

and I have faithfully tithed our income, even through all the depression.

Other doctors in this community have nearly gone under with their business during this time of

financial trouble, and they have come to Doctor and said, ‘How do you manage to get on so well? We

can hardly make it, and pay our bills.’” She said, “They did not know it, but we knew the secret. God

was honoring Doctor for faithfully tithing his income.” That was several years ago, and today that

doctor has an ever-increasing practice, is “well-fixed” financially, and God is constantly honoring him.

It is just another repetition of the story of the “little cake first,” and “the never-failing cruse of oil.”

In California, one evening when I was a young man, I sat in the home of a retired business man of the

Western Coast. He was the man who started what later became known as the Western Auto Supply

Company of America. When this man sold out his stores to the Supply Company, he had, if I remember

correctly, no less than thirteen stores scattered up and down the Pacific Coast. I heard this man tell of

how he began business, and also began to tithe. The more he gave, the more God gave to him. He was

so blessed financially that he doubled his tithe the second year, and tripled it the third. When he finally

sold out, he was giving God four-tenths of all that he made, and money was coming into his coffers by

the hundreds and thousands of dollars. He was blessed of God, and was one of God’s “humble rich

men.” He would take his Concertina and go out on the street corners with God’s other saints and testify

to what God had done for him: He was a God-honored man, and was rich because he had put God’s

promises to the test.

We could go on telling just such illustrations as these that we have given, proving that if we do not put

God first in our finances, we cannot expect Him to help us when we are in need; but that if we do give

Him his “little cake first” the promises have never been known to fail. Are you having a hard time to

make ends meet? Are you having a hard time to live on what you make and give a tenth – better double

it then.” The more you give to Him, the more He will give to you. He will never stay in debt to any of

us. “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and

running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be

measured to you again.” -- Luke 6:38.



Pilgrim Holiness Advocate

Vol. XXI – March 27, 1941 – No. 13



22 MISSED IT AT LAST

The Prairie Overcomer

A physician in New York called upon a young man who was ill. He sat for a little while by the bedside,

examining his patient, and then he honestly told him that he had but a short time to live.

The young man was astonished; he didn’t think it would come to that so soon. He forgot that death

comes “in such an hour as ye think not.” At length he looked up into the face of the doctor, and with a

most despairing countenance repeated the expression,

“I have missed it – at last.”

“What have you missed?” inquired the tenderhearted, sympathizing physician.

“I have missed it – at last,” again he repeated.

The doctor, not in the least comprehending what the poor young man meant, said: “My dear young

man, will you be so good as to tell me what you --?” He instantly interrupted, saying:

“Oh, doctor, it is a sad story – a sad, sad story that I have to tell! But I have missed it.”

“Missed what?”

“Doctor, I have missed the salvation of my soul.”

“Oh, say not so! It is not so. Do you remember the thief on the cross?”

“Yes, I remember the thief on the cross. And I remember he never said to the Holy Spirit, ‘Go Thy

way.’ But I did. And now He is saying to me, ‘Go your way.’”

He lay gasping a while, and looking up with a vacant, staring eye, he said: “I was awakened, and was

anxious about my soul a little time ago. But I did not want religion then.

Something seemed to say to me, ‘Don’t put it off! Make sure of salvation.’ I said to myself, ‘I will

postpone it.’ I knew I ought not to do it. I knew I was a great sinner, and needed a Saviour. I resolved,

however, to dismiss the subject for the present. Yet I could not get my own consent to do it until I had

promised that I would take it up again at a time not remote, and more favorable. I bargained away –

insulted and grieved away – the Holy Spirit. I never thought of coming to this. I meant to have religion,

and make my salvation sure. And now I have missed it – at last.”

“You remember,” said the doctor, “that there were some who came at the eleventh hour.”

“My eleventh hour,” he replied, was when I had that call of the Spirit. I have had none since – shall not

have. I am given over to be lost.”

“Not lost,” said the doctor; “you may yet be saved.”

“No; not saved – never. He tells me I may go my way now. I know it; I feel it – feel it here,” laying his

hand upon his heart. Then he burst out in despairing agony, “Oh, I have missed it! I have sold my soul

for nothing – a feather – a straw. Undone forever!” This was said with such unutterable and

indescribable despondency that no words were said in reply. After lying a few moments, he raised his

head and looked around the room as if for some desired object – turning his eyes in every direction;

then burying his face in the pillow, he again exclaimed, in agony and horror, “Oh, I have missed it at

last!” and he died.

Reader, you need not miss your salvation for you may have it now. What you have read is a true story.

How earnestly it says to you, “Now is the accepted time!”



Pilgrim Holiness Advocate

Vol. XXI – November 13, 1941 – No. 46



23 THANK YOU FOR THE TRACT

Anon.

A minister went to the new field to preach the Gospel. One afternoon he, with his wife, started out to

visit. As they walked along they stopped at a small house, and Mr. Jones said, “Let us commence here,”

raising the knocker.

There was a short delay, and then the door opened a few inches, and a man’s face looked out at them. It

was rather a fine-featured face, but the eyes were defiant and hard, and there was not the least smile on

his face.

“What do you want?” he asked in a surly tone.

“May we come in?” said the gentle voice of Mrs. Jones, and although the man looked ungracious, he

did not refuse her request. He did not offer them chairs, but took his own seat and resumed his

occupation, mending shoes.

Mr. Jones hesitated a moment, when the man said fiercely:

“What do you want?”

“We have come to see you,” said Mr. Jones, drawing a chair for his wife.

“Well, now you have seen me, you can go,” was the rude reply.

Mr. Jones took no notice of the incivility, but kindly said: “I am your new minister, and this is my wife.

We are anxious to make the acquaintance of all the people among whom we have come to live, and so

we have called upon you.”

The man stared at them, and then he burst into a mocking laugh.

“I am no believer in parsons and prayers. You need not waste your time on me. I suppose

you know who I am?”

“Not in the least,” replied Mr. Jones.

“It’s John Brice, and you’ll soon hear enough about me to make your hair stand on end.

Don’t come here preaching. I warn you” -- raising his finger. “If you want a crust of bread, come; but if

you want to convert me, then stay away.”

“Thank you,” said Mr. Jones. “If I were hungry, I would take your crust; but I am not. Do not forget I

am here to be your friend, if you need one; and now, good-bye.”

From others Mr. Jones learned that John Brice was the noted infidel and skeptic of the village, the

acknowledged leader in public-house blasphemy, and one who never entered a place of worship.

Several weeks passed, when little Lettie, Mr. Jones’ daughter, ran into the room where he was with a

pair of shoes, the upturned soles showing they needed mending.

“O papa, won’t you have your shoes mended? Do let me take them to the cobbler.”

“Indeed you may, my little dear,” said Mr. Jones, smiling.

“Where shall I take them?”

Suddenly Mr. Jones thought of John Brice sitting in his cheerless room. “I’ll send them to him, just to

show him I have no ill-will to him for his rude reception of us.”

He tied them together, dropping inside of one a little tract entitled, “Have You a Soul?”

Lettie departed with her parcel, and left it in the keeping of John Brice who even smiled at the sunny-

faced little girl who tripped in and out of his shop like a stray sunbeam.

At the end of the week Mr. Jones was told, “Somebody wants to speak to you, at the back door.”

There stood John Brice, the mended shoes in his hand, shifting uneasily from foot to foot, and with a

peculiar expression on his face.

“Thank you for the job, sir,” he said, as he took the payment for his work, adding with evident

difficulty, “Thank you for the tract.”

“The tract?” said Mr. Jones, not remembering for a moment about putting it in the shoe.

“The tract in the shoe, sir; it knocked me all to pieces. I would be right glad if you would come and see

me now, sir.”

Mr. Jones did not take much notice of Brice’s words, thinking he was playing the hypocrite.

But the following Sunday evening John Brice was in church, and again the following Sunday, to the

surprise of the villagers.

Mr. Jones called on Brice and found him a changed man, deeply penitent for his sinful past life, and

earnestly desiring to find pardon and peace through the blood of the once despised Saviour

He soon became a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in every place where his voice had been

loudest in blasphemy it might now be heard testifying to the power and grace of God.

Months passed, when one day John Brice came to Mr. Jones in great trouble. An acute disease of his

eyes had suddenly developed, causing him intense pain, and threatening him with total blindness, and

loss of occupation. Some of his friends paid his expenses to visit an eminent oculist, but nothing could

be done for him.

A small weekly contribution from a few friends provided him with the necessaries of his simple life.

The hours of darkness were not lost to John Brice. Every visitor was handed his little Bible, and asked

to read from its sacred pages. He would listen to its sweet promises with intense delight and reverence,

often exclaiming, “I see, I see!” as some new truth opened up to his view, and often he said with a

happy smile, “I never saw till I was blind.”

Before the year was out, the home-call had come to John Brice. Suddenly his health failed.

All that Christian kindness could do was done, and the little “angel child,” as he loved to call little

Lettie, was his constant visitor, sitting by his side to sing her hymns in her bird-like voice, or reading

his favorite psalms.

God has strange ways of winning hearts to Himself, and we may all take courage from these facts

given. A word fitly spoken, a leaflet prayerfully given, a tract dropped by the wayside, or sent by mail,

or left at a door, may be used to win a soul for Christ.

Pilgrim Holiness Advocate

Vol. XXXIV – April 24, 1954 – No. 17



24 GEORGE W. RIDOUT – 1870-1954

Dr. George W. Ridout has gone to be with Jesus. He was called home, March 19, 1954, after a short

illness in Methodist Hospital, Philadelphia. His home is in Audubon, N.J.

Dr. Ridout was born in St. John’s, Newfoundland. He went to Boston, Massachusetts, as a young man

and was educated at Temple University. He served as Professor of Theology at Upland, Indiana. He

served as Chaplain with the 38th Regiment in France during World War I. Following the war he

accepted the Chair of Theology at Asbury College where he remained until 1927.

Following his teaching service at Asbury, Dr. Ridout, entered missionary and evangelistic work and

traveled extensively in Japan, China, India, Africa, and South America. He was widely known in the

holiness camp meetings and churches of the United States.

For more than thirty years he wrote a weekly page for the Herald (Pentecostal Herald), published at

Louisville, Kentucky. His writings also appeared in other holiness papers including the ADVOCATE.

He wrote several books, among them “The Cross and the Flag,” “Amazing Grace,” and “The Power of

the Holy Spirit.” He was a member of the British Philosophic Society and a fellow of the Royal

Geographic Society.

Dr. Ridout was a long-standing member of the Methodist Church, holding his ministerial connection

with the New Jersey Conference for 50 years.

Loyal to Jesus Christ and the Word, Dr. Ridout never wavered in his stand for righteousness and truth.

He was an outstanding exponent of holiness. Not many of our younger readers will recall this man of

God except through his writings, but to others his name will be linked to that thinning line of worthies

who wrought so well to lay the foundations of the holiness work of our times. (See the “Entry

Directions” page for some of his writing)

Surviving are his widow, Laura; a daughter, Mrs. Ruth Neilson of Audubon; and two sons, Albert K.

and Dr. George B. Ridout.



Pilgrim Holiness Advocate

Vol. XXXIV – April 24, 1954 – No. 17



25 SAVED FROM A SUICIDE’S GRAVE

Oscar Lund, Cottonwood, Arizona

In the spring of 1906, I landed in Danville, Illinois, but I do not remember how I got there. I suppose I

came in on a freight train. Friendless and with no place to go, I started out to get a job. I had not gone

far until I came to a cement block factory. Here, I went to work with the rest of the men. Not long

afterwards, the cook quit and the job of cooking fell to me, since I had done cooking in other camps

over the country.

On the Fourth of July, I joined some of the men in taking a train to another town near Danville. The last

I remember on that trip, I had bought a new suit of clothes. Some of the men got me back on the train

to Danville so drunk that I did not know how I got back to the camp.

It seemed that I was the only drunkard on the job. I became ashamed of myself and did not want to

stay. The more I thought about it the worse I felt. One day I decided that I, too, could be a real man.

Quitting my job and going to Minneapolis, I determined to start life anew.

On Saturday night of the first week there, someone woke me up at midnight, where I was sitting on the

lower step of a cheap lodging house, dead drunk. I said, “It’s no use. I can’t keep from drinking.”

Right there I decided to end my life on Monday night, at 11:00 p.m., by jumping off the bridge that

crosses the Mississippi. Sunday afternoon, as I was leaning against a railing, I said to myself, “Just so

many hours now, and it all will be over.”

A young man came along handing out tickets and gave one to me. It had a verse of the Bible on each

side. I read it over and over, wondering if there was something to it. I looked up and saw a mission

across the street on the second floor of a building. Obeying a sudden impulse, I entered the service

which was in progress. At the close, a visiting preacher, sitting by the door, shook hands with the men

as they filed out. When he shook my hand, he said, “Young man, are you a Christian?”

“I should say not!”

“Don’t you want to be a Christian?”

“You go out and try to help others before they get to where I am,” I told him. With that I started

downstairs. But that preacher stopped me, and asked for a chance to talk. He finally led me back into

the mission. By this time all had gone but the workers. They talked and prayed with me. I tried to pray

but could not. One man said, “Will you pray after me, and say the same words?” I did, to the best of my

ability.

“If you have done all you can, just believe you are a Christian,” they said. I went to my room and to

bed. The next morning, I said, “Well, I am a Christian. Them people told me so, and they ought to

know.” Later, after thinking it over, I said, “If that is religion I got last night, it’s no good!” Then I went

right back to the mission to find out for sure if that was religion. I waited and waited, but no one

showed up.

An inner voice kept saying, “You did not do what the mission people told you to do. They told you to

go to your room and read and pray. You had better go back to your room and pray.

Returning to my room, I took off my coat and hat and read from the tracts and the gospel which the

workers had given me. Then I got on my knees to pray. After a bit the tears began to come. I prayed on

and on until I came up against some sins; and the Lord said, “Will you give that up?”

“No,” I said, “I don’t have to.”

The Lord said, “If you jump into the river you will have to give it up.”

“Yes,” I said, “I will give it up.” And so it went on all afternoon. I stayed on my knees close to seven

hours. Tears flowed, and plenty of them. After a while, my tears dried and I could not pray any more.

So I got up from my knees, sat down in a chair, and said, “I have gone too far.” Then I arose to go out,

saying, “No use!”

To my surprise, I seemed to hear an audible voice saying, “Thy sins are forgiven.”

From here on words fail to tell what happened. I received a real baptism both inside and out. Old things

passed away and all things became new. Glory be to God!

Thus in July, 1905, at 32 years of age, I was born again. About two years later, I went through the

process of heart cleansing. Also, I made restitution to the authorities and the folk whom I had wronged.

Once I was young, now am old, but I am living for the One who rescued me from a suicide’s grave

about five hours before the hour in which I had determined to take my own life.

Sinner friend, come clean in confessing your sins and your need to Jesus Christ. He only can get you

out of what the devil got you into.



Pilgrim Holiness Advocate

Vol. XXXIV – March 13, 1954 – No. 11



26 WHOLE-HEARTED SERVICE

H. C. Morrison

[The accompanying article by Dr. H. C. Morrison was published in the Pentecostal Herald in the

issue of December 6, 1939. Dr. Morrison was founder and editor of the Herald for more than 50

years, President of Asbury College for 25 years, and President of Asbury Seminary at the time of his

call to “come up higher” on March 24, in Elizabethton, Tenn., at the high age of 85 years. Dr.

Morrison was an indefatigable leader, and his achievements as evangelist, editor, educator, and

pulpiteer all are noteworthy and outstanding.]

“Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, is to the Lord, and not unto men (Col. 3:23).

This chapter, from which we select the text, contains an exceedingly rich vein in the gold mine of

inspired Truth. As we dig into it, we are profoundly impressed with the exceeding richness of God’s

grace and the simplicity and force of the writings of the inspired apostle, Paul.

This chapter opens with a striking exhortation and most reasonable appeal: “If ye then be risen with

Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your

affections on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ

in God.” He goes on to say, “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with

him in glory.”

This appeal offers to the servants of Christ the highest incentive possible to a consecrated life. It

reckons us to be dead to sin, and assures us that we, too, shall appear with Christ when He comes in His

glory. The apostle calls our attention to the breadth of love and harmony that exists among the children

of the Kingdom of grace. That Kingdom exists among the children of God only – those who are born of

the Spirit, who have been begotten of the Spirit and brought into close and holy relationship with the

blessed Trinity. In this wonderful Kingdom of grace, the distinctions which men make are entirely lost

sight of. Here there is “neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian,

bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.”

In view of this fact, the apostle calls our attention to the importance of the greatest generosity and

charity in this household of faith. He exhorts to humbleness, kindness, meekness, long-suffering: all of

these graces are to be crowned with love. “Above all these things,” says the apostle, “put on charity,

which is the bond of perfectness.” The apostle becomes very practical in his exhortation to wives,

children to obey their parents, servants to obey in all things their masters.

He then crowns the whole with the text, “Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto

men.”

It seems that it would be impossible for the inspired writer to have covered more ground in these few

words of the text. We are prone to do things from a selfish standpoint, to seek to please ourselves or to

please others with a selfish motive. We are likely to work for money, to work for applause, to do things

even diligently and well, with an impure or selfish end in view. The apostle exhorts us to do all things

as unto the Lord. As a mason, I am to build a wall as if Jesus Christ had employed me. If I am a

carpenter, I am to measure, and saw, and joint, and adjust, and nail, as if I were building a house for

Christ. As a merchant, I must buy and sell, get gain, guard against extortion, and deal with my

customers with the understanding that Jesus is the head of the firm and I am working for Him.

This must extend to every phase of life and, working thus, while I build the wall, or the house, cultivate

a crop, or buy and sell goods, I am building character. I am laying up stores in heaven for eternal

enjoyment. Working thus for Jesus, I put enthusiasm, joy, honesty, and industry into my labor, all the

while I seek His approval. And, of course, I am rendering good service to my fellow men. If we thus

labor, life and toil will have a marvelous charm, an inspiring interest, and there will spring up a blessed

and holy communion with Him for whom we are working. And, in the end, no doubt, Jesus will say,

“Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”

This “doing things as unto the Lord” gives a new dignity and sacredness to the commonest pursuits and

toils of everyday life. It brings strength and courage along with the spirit of equality and square deal

into all the professions – the practice of medicine, of law, the conduct of commercial affairs. It gives

one high standards, pure ideals, and an adjustment to Christ and our fellow beings which lifts us

entirely out of the commonplace and adds infinite charm to the simplest, as well as to the greatest, tasks

of life.

As Christians, we are in danger of coming to feel that a certain class of duties is sacred and ought to be

discharged with peculiar care and reverence, and that there are other duties that are entirely secular and

may be performed, not only with no thought of Christ, but with a looseness and indifference that does

not measure up to the standards of Christian ethics. This is a mistake, and it is quite unfortunate if we

should fall into this habit of thought and action.

The Christian man and woman must not permit themselves to feel that the minister, the missionary, or

others who are directly called of God to special and constant service, are the only ones who are under

the call of God and special obligation to devote themselves with reverence and holy fear to His service.

We must look upon every calling as sacred. The Christian physician, lawyer, author, architect, builder,

blacksmith, miller, farmer, mechanic, traveling man, in whatsoever place or occupation, must feel that

his place is a high place; that he is a servant of his fellows; that he is ministering to the needs of those

about him; that there is a sense in which he is under as high obligations to live a consecrated life and

render the best possible service as the minister or the missionary.

I think I have known many people who felt that the calling to the ministry was very sacred, that the

called ought to answer promptly, separate themselves from all else, practice self-denial and live very

holy lives. Without doubt, this is true. But is it not equally true that in every calling and occupation of

every kind that is legitimate, into which a Christian may enter with a good conscience, that he is under

high and holy obligations to live at his best and to do his best, not from a selfish standpoint, but as unto

the Lord, gladly rendering assistance and help to his fellow beings? I think I have known people, not a

few of them, who were in a very beautiful sense the ministers of the Lord, in their fields, cultivating

their crops; in their barnyards, caring for their herds; in their homes, walking before their families; on

their engines, drawing their trains freighted with human life; in their shops, doing honest and careful

work; on the road, selling their goods to the trade and witnessing for Jesus. Such persons are living just

as pure, consecrated lives, and serving with just as devout carefulness and joy as any man I have ever

known in the pulpit proclaiming the Gospel.

Whatever our employment, wherever our lot is cast, It is ours to be epistles read and known of all men,

to be controlled and guided with a sense of high and holy obligation, to feel by whomsoever employed,

and whatever our task that, first of all, and most of all, whatsoever we do must be done heartily, as unto

the Lord. May God so save us by the power of the atonement, so fill and guide us with the Holy Ghost,

that our lives may thus be consecrated, and all our services rendered, our tasks performed, and our

work done with the thought that the Lord Jesus is our employer, that His gracious eye is upon us, that

in the simplest things performed with a pure motive and unselfish desire, to help and bless our fellows,

we have His approval and that He receives the service as rendered unto himself. If we can thus live, no

doubt in the by and by we shall receive His gracious plaudit, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant

... enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”



Pilgrim Holiness Advocate

Vol. XXXIV – March 20, 1954 – No. 12



27 TO THE REGIONS BEYOND

William S. Deal, Supt. Pacific Northwest District

“To preach the gospel in the regions beyond you” (II Cor. 10:16).

The passing of the spirit of the frontier was one of the saddest days in American history.

When a nation loses its spirit of frontier progress it begins an inevitable declension toward softness and

decay. The church likewise, must have spiritual frontiers, or suffer a similar fate. If it is to continue as a

vital movement and remain vigorous in its program of progress, it must ever be on the march for new

territories. It cannot sit down and content itself with its accomplishments.

There can be no slackening of the pace, no letting up in the pursuit of the goal short of its

accomplishment. For the church to do so is to invite spiritual disaster.

St. Paul was determined to be ever on the lookout for new horizons. “The regions beyond” had a

tremendous pull upon him, His restless spirit ever cried out to preach the gospel in new territories. Paul

was but following the pattern set by the Master. Christ was ever pressing on to preach the gospel in the

cities and villages where He had not preached it before. This same spirit should energize us today. We

should ever be alert for new places to win souls and open new churches. Ours should be the spirit of the

old frontiersman who ever kept the distant look in his eye for new territories to conquer, condition, and

inhabit.

America provides unlimited spiritual frontiers for our church today. With Pilgrim churches in only 35

states, and with thousands of cities, towns, and villages everywhere in these states where we have no

work, possibilities for our expansion are staggering. Millions await the gospel message our church has

to offer. We could increase the total number of all our churches at present twenty-five times and never

crowd ourselves in the least. With 7000 new faces showing up in America every day, what a challenge

we have to evangelize! America is increasing in population to the tune of over 2,000,000 per year. New

housing projects are springing up everywhere, with no churches near in many instances. Millions of

unchurched people present a challenge never so great before in American history.

As a church we have only begun in this tremendous field of Church Extension. Our leaders of this fast-

growing department are to be commended for all they have done, and our people, likewise, for their

increased vision and giving in recent years. Our work has spread over a vast area of the nation in the

past 20 years of the Department of Church Extension’s official life. But the surface has been barely

scratched, even where we have labored; and great areas all around remain untouched by us. These

untouched regions beyond our borders cry out with spiritual need and hunger. They present a challenge

to us. This is our day of golden opportunity. Thousands of them would respond to the gospel message if

we only had the workers to contact them and the churches in which they could worship. If we can find

the right men with vision and spiritual initiative, we can always erect the churches. In this issue of the

ADVOCATE alone, witness the new projects as a result of the ever increasing response to the gospel

message.

Think for a moment what could be done to win thousands more this year if only the people in our

churches who are recorded as ministers, but not actively engaged in this work, would go out to win

souls as they should! What an army of laymen there could be also who could rise to this great task.

But to win souls and build new work successfully requires two things: qualified workers, and money to

help support them and aid in erecting new churches. This is the lifeline of our work.

Without it we cannot hope to succeed. God has blessed this method over the past years as it has

continued to expand.

Is it too much to ask for $50,000 in this Easter Offering, when the Department of Church Extension

will actually need this amount to carry on its ever expanding work? Surely, we would not tie the hands

of those who labor so long, hard, and sacrificially for this great cause. Every church can give

something, and many will give largely. Let us remember that it is only as you give that the “lifeline”

holds, while our workers out there “rescue the perishing, care for the dying.” We cannot, and we will

not, let them down!

Pilgrim Holiness Advocate

Vol. XXXIV – March 27, 1954 – No. 13



28 “BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART” Matthew 5:8

George W. Ridout

In our doctrine of Christian holiness as taught by Wesley and the theologians of Methodism we put it

down as one of the absolute essentials of sanctification – the experience of heart purity -the cleansing

of the heart through the precious blood.

Rev. John A. Wood, in that wonderful book on Perfect Love, gives the following on the subject of

purity of heart.

“A pure heart will be indicated:

“1. By pure and holy conversation. “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” If the heart

is right, the conversation will be sweet, truthful, humble, heavenly, and holy.

“2. By opposition to all impurity. A pure heart loathes sin, and has no affinity for it. It shrinks from it,

as a worm would from a fire. It abominates it, and recoils from it.

“3. By thorough watchfulness. The love of purity instinctively leads to watchfulness against impurity.

The holy soul is led to watchfulness, in this polluted world, by its own instincts.

“4. By reluctance to mingle with the gay, the vain, and worldly. It has no moral affinity for such

society, and no taste for such associations. The charm of the world has been broken. The pure heart has

tastes, motives, communings, and enjoyments totally dissimilar to the worldling.”

“Let worldly minds the world pursue:

It has no charms for me:

Once I admired its trifles, too.

But grace hath set me free.”

Some years ago Gipsy Smith, the great English evangelist, was holding a revival in Philadelphia, and in

one of his noonday meetings in Arch Street Methodist Church he told a story on heart purity which I

shall never forget. I consider it one of the finest illustrations on heart purity.

An Englishman had the misfortune to lose his sight. Doctors told him he would go blind for the rest of

his life. One day he was visited by a friend who sympathized with him over his affliction. This friend

greatly wanted him to visit a certain famous physician with him. “Oh no,” he said, “what’s the use? My

doctor tells me nothing can be done about it.” But his friend prevailed upon him to make the visit. The

great doctor examined the blind man very carefully and then asked him to continue any medicine he

was taking and follow out a course of medicine he would prescribe. This was agreed to and he went

back home and began the new treatment. In a week or more there was a change. He could see dimly.

He visited the doctor again; who told him to continue with the medicine, which he did. And, to his

delight, in a few weeks he could see. His sight was restored.

A friend of the great doctor said, in talking over this case and cure, “Doctor, I did not know you were

an eye specialist.” The doctor replied, “I am not. But I saw that this man’s (physical) heart* was in a

dirty condition, and that if I could clean up his heart his sight would return. That’s what I did.”

I frequently used this illustration when preaching on, “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall

see...” (Matt. 5:8).

I have referred this case to several doctors, whose comments were not very reassuring. But recently in

my reading I got the finest and most conclusive proof of the truth of this case. I take pleasure in passing

it on to my readers.

Preaching in Brighton, England, Rev. Henry Howard said once that he was trying to prepare a sermon

for children. He said to himself, “What has the heart got to do with seeing?” “I went to the telephone,”

he continued, “and called the principal doctor in our city. I asked him if there was any disease of the

heart that affected the eyes. ‘Oh,’ he said, ‘certainly, Mr. Howard, there is. We call it a dirty heart.’ I

asked him for particulars, and he explained that it was a disease in which ulcers formed on the inner

walls of the heart. There was no pain there, but the blood vessels of the eyes were affected and the eyes

became bloodshot. If there was no cure, the blood vessels burst, and the man became blind. A clean

heart, a clean vision!” (these days we have different names -like cardiovascular disease causing

possible early Macular degeneration.)

Blest are the pure in heart,

For they shall see our God:

The secret of the Lord is theirs;

Their soul is His abode.



Still to the lowly soul

He doth Himself impart;

And for His temple and His throne

Selects the pure in heart.

“Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” I like, sometimes, in preaching on that text, to

stop at the words, “They shall see.” It is a fact beyond the power of contradiction that the pure in heart

see further into the deeper things of God. They understand more clearly the will of God. They enjoy

keener conceptions of revealed truth than those who have not entered into the clean heart experience.

There is a vast difference between purity and power. Many there are who seek after power, pray for

power, have ambition for power; but with God it must be first pure. This is the divine program, and the

soul hungering and thirsting after purity of heart does not stumble over terms. Sanctification is a Bible

term for a Bible experience. Dr. Fowler, in a gracious sermon on John 17:17, “Sanctify them through

thy truth: thy word is truth,” gives the following:

“Sanctification is the utter expulsion of the sin principle. It is the fullness of what, before, one has had

in part. Sanctification is an instantaneous deliverance from all sinfulness: It is ‘the pure love of God and

man shed abroad in a faithful believer’s heart by the Holy Ghost given unto him to cleanse him and to

keep him clean from all the filthiness of the flesh and spirit, and to enable him to fulfill the law of

Christ, according to the talents he is intrusted with, and the circumstances in which he is placed in this

world. (The degree of original sin which remains in some believers, though not a transgression of a

known law, is nevertheless sin, and the removal of this remaining hidden potential for actual evil is

what we mean by full sanctification.) ‘Regeneration is the beginning of purification, entire

sanctification is finishing that work.’”

He wills that I should holy be;

That holiness I long to feel;

That full divine conformity

To all my Saviour’s righteous will.



See, Lord, the travail of thy soul

Accomplished in the change of mine;

And plunge me, every whit made whole,

In all the depths of love divine.



On thee, O God, my soul is stayed,

And waits to prove thine utmost will;

The promise by thy mercy made,

Thou canst, thou wilt, in me fulfill.



No more I stagger at thy power,

Or doubt thy truth, which cannot move;

Hasten the long-expected hour,

And bless me with thy perfect love.

-- Charles Wesley





Pilgrim Holiness Advocate

Vol. XXXIV – May 1, 1954 – No. 18



29 THE GREAT JUDGMENT DAY

I. M Wickham, Barbados, B.W.I.

Scripture: Acts 17:22-34

“Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he

hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead” (Acts

17:31).

This text is a statement of truth delivered in the Apostle Paul’s sermon on Mars’ hill. It necessitates

great consideration because it concerns every human being created. It affords us three major points: 1)

The appointed day, 2) The appointed Judge, and 3) The appointed offenders.

From the fact that God is Creator, Preserver, and Sustainer of man, it is a time when man should give

account for the way he has lived his life during his short stay in this world.

1) The day of judgment is a definite appointment. That it is unalterable, is the general tenor of

Scripture. One of the acts of the Holy Spirit is to convince the world of a coming judgment (John

16:11). It is to be clearly seen that mortal man dies whether he lives his life wrong or right, but

death does not end all of man as it does the animals, for we read in Hebrews 9:27, “It is appointed

unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”

Death is the certain penalty or consequence of sin. That is a known fact. You are reminded of this daily;

hence, there is no room for doubt. Since the appointment of death is accepted according to the Word of

God, why doubt the appointment of the judgment which follows death? Simply because man cannot

understand, by reason, the possibility of certain statements as revealed in the Bible, is no reason why

divine truths should be treated skeptically.

God would have us know that His thoughts and ways are different from man’s. Peter says, “One day is

with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” He also states, “The Lord knoweth

how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be

punished.” It is to our hurt when we reject the revealed truths of God and slight the warnings contained

therein. The Bible is spoken of as a chart and who, for a seaman, would venture out on the ocean as a

captain without a chart and compass. Too many times the Bible is disregarded with the statement, “It

was written by men.” We should consult it as a divine chart and pay attention to its warnings.

The story has been told of a vessel named the Thetis which cruised in the Mediterranean in search of a

hidden shoal said to exist beneath the treacherous waters thus making it dangerous for shipping. After a

fruitless search, the captain declared the reported danger to be non-existent. An officer on board, not

being fully convinced about the captain’s report, went out some time after and was successful in

finding the dangerous shoal which was duly inserted in the charts. The captain, who made the original

search, on hearing of the discovery, refused to believe it but exclaimed, “If I ever have the keel of the

Thetis under me again in those waters, if I don’t carry her clean over the spot where the chart marks a

rock, call me a liar and no seaman.”

Two years afterward, he was conveying the British Ambassador to Naples in the same vessel and

deliberately resolved to sail over the spot where the sunken rock was marked on the chart. Acquainting

the passengers with the story he added, “Within five minutes we shall have crossed the spot.” Glancing

at his watch he said triumphantly, “The time is passed and we have gone over the wonder reef.” But

alas! A grating sound was felt on the ship’s keel, then a sudden shock, and finally a tremendous crash

and the ship was completely wrecked. Most of the men on board were saved but the captain, refusing to

survive his own mad action, went down with the ship, a victim of unbelief and reckless disregard of

danger. (suicide by pride!?)

How many today are treating the fact of the coming judgment in the same unbelieving manner! Down

with our notions about the matter! Consult the divine chart and note the fact that the appointment is

unalterable. Do not wait to be convinced when you appear before the bar unrepentant.

2) The appointed Judge. The Lord Jesus Christ is appointed by God the Father to be the sole Judge at

that great day. This fact is assured by His having raised Him from the dead. No man, then, can deny

the judgment if he regards the revelation concerning the resurrection of the Lord Jesus from the

dead. These are important truths to be pondered well. How often we have heard men and women

expressing their wish for certain magistrates to try their cases, because of their likes and dislikes

forming the expressed choice. But with this divinely appointed Administrator there is no substitute.

This is not left for man to choose or to work around for a change. The very same Christ who is now

blasphemed, despised, and rejected by you is ordained to be your Judge.

I read of a judge in England who was a small, quiet, and unimpressive man to look upon.

While walking along a muddy street one day, he encountered an experience with a man who was

breaking the law of that land. According to the local law no one was allowed to stop a vehicle on the

walk or to obstruct pedestrians. A huckster came along meanwhile, with a wagon drawn by an animal.

The harness broke which caused him to stop. Rather than get off in the mud, he stopped the wagon on

the walk to fix it. The little man said, “I am sorry, sir, but there is a city ordinance against this. Let me

ask you please to move off and let me pass. He sneered at him, “I am not going to get my feet dirty. I

care nothing about the ordinance. You get off yourself.”

The little fellow simply said, “Very well.” He walked off, found a police officer who saluted him, and

he said, “Go down and arrest that man and bring him before me tomorrow morning.”

The next morning came for the trial. The man planned to make an excuse but to his great horror, when

he looked up at the judge on the bench and saw him to be the same little man he had chased off the

walk into the mud, his mouth was stopped. Yes, many are driving Christ away from their hearts; m any

are defiantly refusing to submit to Him and His claims as Saviour; but the day is coming when He shall

be in the place as Judge judging in righteousness. Mark you, there will be no mercy then. That day shall

have been passed and justice shall be meted out according to the life lived.

I warn you, I beseech you. Doubt not these solemn truths; think not that we are only trying to scare

you. We must be faithful whether or not we like to preach on such subjects or whether or not you like

to hear them. This same Jesus who now offers you salvation, if rejected, shall be the Administrator of

your eternal damnation.

3) The appointed offenders. These Scriptures, John 5:28-29 and Rev. 20:11-15, make it clear that all

who have not accepted Christ as Saviour shall be present at this appointed day of judgment. Not

just a few cases from our community, but says the text, “He shall judge the world,” none exempted.

Thank God, you can avoid the White Throne Judgment. How? By obeying the command. What is

it? “Repent!”

As I close this message, note the three classes mentioned in the context who listened to Paul’s sermon:

1) The deriders. It is said, “Some mocked.” They simply laughed at the idea of a resurrection and the

following judgment.

2) There were delayers there. “Others said, We will hear thee again of this matter.” They thought they

would just put it off until a little later for consideration.

3) Deciders were also there. Thank God, for them. “Howbeit certain men clave unto him and

believed.” They decided to accept the truth, obey the command, and repent that their sins might be

forgiven; thus enabling them to escape the awful penalty of those arraigned before the judge as is

mentioned positively in Rev. 20:15. Which class will you be filed in?

(My personal view of this is that heaven is God's glorious ancient family estate, which He built for the

enjoyment of His extended family. If by your actions you declare yourself to be not part of His family, but His

enemy's, you have made yourself ineligible for entry past the heavenly gates. There is no prejudice or malice in

this since the estate is His, just as the ark belonged to Noah. All those mockers outside had not helped build it,

and so were not welcome to ride what they no doubt scornfully referred to as “Noah's folly”.)





Pilgrim Holiness Advocate

Vol. XXXIV – May 1, 1954 – No. 18



30 – WHY WE BELIEVE IN HOLINESS

William S. Deal, Supt, Pacific Northwest District

“Holiness becometh thine house, O Lord, for ever” (Psalm 93:5).

Why have holiness people gone so far, suffered so much, by way of misunderstanding,

misrepresentation and sometimes real persecution because they insisted on putting such strong

emphasis upon holiness? What is back of this all-pervading urge to make the doctrine and experience

of heart-holiness an issue of such importance among Christians?

In this article we purpose to share with our readers some scriptural reasons for believing in holiness. It

is quite likely that these reasons are the basic ones for which all of us believe in this grand doctrine.

Consider a word of explanation with reference to terms used. Sanctification is the act of God’s grace,

wrought in the heart of the believer, by which he is cleansed from sin and renewed in the image of God.

It is subsequent to justification, and is accompanied by the baptism with Fire(Acts 15:8, 9). Holiness is

the state flowing from the instantaneous act of entire sanctification, and continues as long as the

believer walks with the Lord. (See Luke 1:73-75; I John 1:7). Holiness is a term generally used among

holiness people to denote both the experience of sanctification, the state of heart purity following it,

and the life and walk of the believer after receiving it. It usually denotes, in common parlance, an

experience and a way of life, free from sin and separate from the world, so far as worldly living [i.e.,

living in the world, or earthly life] is concerned.

Some writers and preachers have referred to holiness as the central theme of the Bible.

Others object to this on the ground that redemption is the central theme, and that Christ is the central

figure of the Bible. Very well. But what is the central idea of redemption and the supreme purpose of

Christ’s sacrifice? Is it not that sin may be forgiven and purged out of men’s hearts, and holiness of

heart and life implanted in every believer’s life? Here we must all agree, as St. John so clearly

indicates: “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the

devil” (I John 3:8). Sin in human hearts is the supreme work of the devil; therefore, the supreme work

of redemption is its total removal. Hence, the central idea of redemption, centered in the person and

work of Christ, is His reconciliation of men to God by forgiveness and heart cleansing. And without

this “heart purity,” redemption has not reached its grand goal in any life. Holiness, then, may be called

the “capstone” of redemption, so far as this life is concerned.

1. We believe in holiness because it is the oldest doctrine of the Bible. “According as he hath chosen

us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him

in love” (Ephesians 1:4). If this is not about the oldest choice, the oldest plan, and the oldest

doctrine in the Bible, where would one go to find them? Evidently, holiness was God’s first thought

for man. And on this point, He has never changed His mind! God has amply set forth this truth of

the holiness of believers in His Word, and that Word is “for ever settled in heaven.” It is evident to

all thoughtful Bible readers that God’s original purpose was that man should be holy. Any other

purpose would have contradicted His very moral character. That this purpose existed in the mind of

God from all eternity there can be little doubt.

Back of this, then, there is no older doctrine concerning mankind.

2. God definitely planned for man’s restoration to holiness in redemption. St. Luke makes this clear by

reference to the promise to Abraham as part of the redemptive covenant, that “we being delivered

out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before

him, all the days of our life” (Luke 1:72-75). We are well aware that this covenant had its national

application to the Jewish people. But we are also aware of the fact that “no prophecy of the

scripture is of any private interpretation” (II Peter 1:20). This covenant had far wider and more

deeply spiritual significance than its limited application to the Israelites. It is our promise for today.

The reasonableness of our claim lies in these facts: If man fell from a holy state, and if God intended to

restore man by redemption; that redemption, to be complete, must necessarily restore him to the state

from which he originally fell, which was the state of holiness. It is plain, then, that the redemptive plan

of God could not do less for man and be a complete redemption. That this plan is progressive in its

application to mankind, none will oppose; and that its final end is man’s restoration to a state of

complete holiness, none will disavow. But that there is a relative state of that holiness, which we may

enjoy here and now, is rejected by some who have not experienced it, but which is enjoyed by

thousands who know its peace and power. It is plainly stated by St. Luke to be an experience enjoyable

in this present life.

3. Christ died to secure to us the benefits of this full salvation. “Wherefore Jesus also, that he might

sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto

him without the camp, hearing his reproach” (Hebrews 13:12;13). This and the passage in

Ephesians 5:24-27 where it is stated that Christ gave himself for the church that He might “sanctify

and cleanse it,” are ample proof of God’s provision for holiness of heart and life for His people,

even in this world. It is here that we should “go forth therefore unto him without the camp,” and it

is here that the church may be sanctified and cleansed, not in heaven. It is our privilege to have this

full salvation today.

4. The Apostles witnessed to and taught this experience and doctrine. At Pentecost there was lively

witness to the Spirit’s baptism. St. Peter announced that this blessing was for “all that are afar off,

even as many as the Lord our God shall call” (Acts 2:39). St. Paul asked the Ephesian Christians if

they had received the Holy Ghost, “since ye believed,” and upon hearing the negative answer,

prayed for them and He fell upon them (Acts 19:1-6).

St. Paul urged it upon the Thessalonian Christians (I Thessalonians 4:3, 7, 8; 5:23, 24, and II

Thessalonians 2:13). He explained that it is “the will of God,” that those who “despise” or reject the

“call to holiness” reject God. He prayed that they may be “sanctified wholly” (through and through

being a stronger rendering of the word wholly), and announced that “Faithful is he that calleth you,

who also will do it.” He refers to this grace as that which will “establish” them until Christ’s coming.

Hebrews 12:14 both enjoins and warns us, “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no

man shall see the Lord.”

There are some eighteen injunctions in the New Testament to holiness of heart and life, underscored by

as many earnest apostolic prayers that God’s people may have this grace. Those who will take the pains

to search will find that this doctrine is amply set forth in the Word of God.

5. Finally, we believe in this doctrine and experience because the greatest soul-winners of the ages

have been fully sanctified persons. There are many records in the biographies, autobiographies,

journals, and diaries of the great soul-winners of the past, referring to their crisis experiences, after

which they became flames of fire for God, winning many souls to Christ.

The list of names is too long to recite here of those whose sanctified lives have produced such gracious

results for Christ. But if the reader has any question about it, let him examine the records for himself.

They will be sufficient to convince him that these mighty men and women of God were equipped with

holy power which flowed from their lives into their work, after they were wholly consecrated to God

and baptized with Fire, after their initial experience of conversion.

Let us spread far and wide this wondrous message of truth and urge upon all Christians everywhere that

they fully sanctified. Never did the church need this mighty baptism of Fire more than today.



Pilgrim Holiness Advocate

Vol. XXXIV – July 3, 1954 – No. 27



31 HEARING WITH PROFIT

Adam Clarke

You will readily grant with me that, if the people do not hear in a proper spirit, the most eminent and

faithful ministers may preach in vain. Let it be ever remembered that the great Bishop of souls, the

Lord Jesus who had every ministerial qualification in absolute perfection, preached the everlasting

gospel to many who were not profited by it; and that He departed from a certain place in which He

could do no mighty works because of the people’s unbelief (Matt. 13:58). In this case it is manifest that

the fault could not be in the Preacher, nor in the matter of His discourses, but in the hearers only. The

grand business, therefore, of the people is to inquire in the most serious manner how they are to hear so

as to be saved.

1. Endeavor to get your minds deeply impressed with the value of the ministry of God’s Word. One of

the most terrible judgments which God ever inflicted on the unfaithful Jews was hiding their

preachers in a corner and producing a famine of the Bread of life. See Amos 8:11-13.

2. If possible, get a few minutes for private prayer before you go to the house of God, that you may

supplicate His throne for a blessing on your own soul, and on the congregation.

3. When you get to the church or chapel, consider it as the house of God, the dwelling place of the

Most High: that He is there to bless His people, and that you cannot please Him better than by

being willing to receive the abundant mercies which He is ready to communicate.

4. Mingle all your hearing with prayer. When the preacher mentions any of the threatenings of God’s

law, beg the Lord to avert them; when he mentions the promises, pray God instantly to fulfill them.

When he describes what a Christian should be, determine to set out a-fresh; and let your heart

immediately purpose, in the strength of God, to give up every evil way and to follow Jesus.

5. Hear with faith. Receive the Scriptures as the words of God: and remember that you are not come

to the chapel to reason about them, but to trust them. God speaks, and His own authority gives

absolute credibility to all that He says. Whatever He promises He is able and willing to perform:

and if the blessing promised be requisite to you now, why now, this moment, is the time in which

God is ready to give it – here, nothing can hinder, nothing injure you, but your unbelief.

6. Receive the preacher as the ambassador of God, sent particularly to you with a message of

salvation. Listen attentively to every part of the sermon – there is a portion for you somewhere in it;

hear all, and you are sure to discern what belongs to yourself.

7. Don’t suppose that you know even all the outlines of the plan of salvation: there is a height, length,

breadth, and depth in the things of God of which you have as yet but a very inadequate conception.

Every sermon will be a means of discovering more and more of the wonders of God’s grace to you

if you hear it in a proper spirit.

8. Do you think that this or the other preacher cannot instruct you? He may be, comparatively

speaking, a weak preacher: but the meanest servant of God’s sending will at all times be directed to

bring something to the wisest and holiest Christians which they have not fully known or enjoyed

before. You do not depend upon the man’s abilities: if he be a preacher of God’s making, he is

God’s mouth; and by him the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of unerring counsel, of infinite wisdom, and

eternal love, will speak to you.

9. Never absent yourself from the house of God when you can possibly attend. Remember it is God

that invites you, not to hear this or the other man; but to hear Himself through His messenger, that

you may be saved. Therefore, go to hear God speak; and let who will be the preacher, you shall

never be disappointed.

10. Consider how great the blessing is which you enjoy. What would a damned soul give for the

privilege of sitting five minutes in your place to hear Jesus preached with the same possibility of

being saved?

11. Don’t divide the word with your neighbor; hear for yourself. Share your clothes, money, and bread

with him, but don’t divide the word preached; it belongs to you; it belongs to him; every man may

have his part by himself, but no man can hear for another. It is your enemy who says to you, “that

suits such and such persons.” It suits you perhaps more than them; if they are present, let them take

it to themselves; you are not your brother’s keeper: if they are not present, you have no business

with them.

12. Consider, this may be the last sermon you shall ever be permitted to hear! Therefore, hear it as if it

were your last, and you will hear it then to your unspeakable profit. Hear for eternity at all times:

remember the eye of God is upon you.

13. Consider: your being blessed does not consist in your remembering heads, divisions, etc., but in

feeling the divine influence, having your eyes enlightened to see more of the worth of Christ and

the necessities of your own soul, in having your heart invigorated with divine strength, and your

soul more determined to follow on to know the Lord.

14. Don’t despise or reject the ministry because it is not so excellent in every respect as you could

wish. Be thankful that God gives it to you such as it is; and remember, if He gave blessings

according to your deserts and according to your improvement, they would be such as would

scarcely deserve to be sought for or retained when found.

15. If you believe the preacher to be a holy man of God, don’t find fault with him; you may depend

upon it, he feels his soul at stake, and while he is in that awful place, the pulpit, strives with all the

sincerity of his heart to do that solemn work in the very best way he can, and to the uttermost of his

power.

16. After the sermon is over, get as speedily home as you can and spend a few moments on your knees

in private earnestly beseeching God to write indelibly on your heart what you have been hearing.

17. Meditate on what you have heard. At first, divine ideas may be but slightly impressed – a little

meditation often serves to deepen this impression: therefore, do not immediately begin to talk with

any of your friends and acquaintances. The mind that was before collected in itself to meditate on

what was heard becomes hereby distracted and the fowls of the air pick up the good seed.

18. As your preachers have many trials peculiar to their work which you cannot know, and probably

could not bear were they laid upon you, take heed how you increase their load. Satan will harass

them sufficiently; let not God’s people join issue with the great adversary, to distress the hearts of

their teachers.

19. They have left all for your sakes, and for the sake of the gospel: and if this all were only the anvil,

the plow, the fishing boat, or the carpenter’s bench, it was their all, and the all they got their bread

comfortably by. And he who has nothing but a net, and leaves that for the sake of doing good to the

souls of men, leaves his all: and remember that, in becoming the servant of all for Christ’s sake, he

often exposes himself to the want of even a morsel of bread. Let the proud and the profane exult

and say, “Such preachers cannot be much injured by their sacrifice of secular property; though they

have left their all, that all was of little worth.” Stop, friend, and take this maxim with you, that it

may moderate your glorying: that man forsakes much who reserves nothing to himself and who

renounces all expectations from this world, taking what you would not trust to God alone, for his

portion. Think of this and be humble.

20. And pray for your preachers, that God may fill them with the unction of His spirit, and make them

messengers of peace to you.



Pilgrim Holiness Advocate

Vol. XXXIV – July 17, 1954 – No. 29



32 MINISTERIAL RESPONSIBILITY

William S. Deal, Supt. Pacific Northwest District

“But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry”

(II Timothy 4:5).

In these days of laxity among men, it is sad to note that far too many ministers are failing to make full

proof of their ministry. (These words literally mean to “fulfill.”) There is too much disregard for

ministerial responsibility.

The time has come when we must speak plainly. When Richard Baxter, great English minister of deep

piety, felt compelled to write a book exposing the sins of the English clergy, they responded by

reminding him in scolding tones that he should have written in Latin. Baxter replied that if the clergy

had sinned in Latin, he would have written in Latin; but as they had sinned in English, he had written in

English!

Let us consider the minister’s greatest responsibilities:

1. His RESPONSIBILITY TO God. It is He who has called him, given him a message, and

providentially opened doors for him to deliver it. To be lax in his duties to God is the highest of

treason to his calling. He must be first in devotions and last to leave them.

His private prayer life must be exemplary. It must be a channel through which the golden oil of Divine

power can always flow out to others. And many an hour should also be spent in diligent study.

His family devotions must ever be kept up. To neglect them is to betray both his family and his calling.

The minister’s motives must ever be such as God can smile upon. To grasp for more money, work for

greater places for selfish reasons, seek places of ease to shun self-denial, are motives beneath his

calling. His private life must be clean and wholesome, and his conduct above reproach as the

representative of God.

Upon the minister rests a solemn vow which he has taken to be true to God, His Word, and His calling.

To do less than this is to betray Christ again into the hands of sinners, become a “trucebreaker” and an

unfaithful witness, helping to destroy the work of God.

Compromise makes a traitor of the minister and robs him of his dignity and self-respect.

How can he respect himself or expect others long to do so? Compromise does more: it eats the heart

out of Christian experience. It lifts the anchor of the minister’s soul and starts him adrift upon a

dangerous sea. It is but a step from compromise in preaching to compromise in practice. From here, it

is but another step into an actual outbreak of sin, heartache, disillusionment, and despair. How soon

will such men look then back upon the golden days of opportunity and bewail how they let them slip

through their fingers.

Certainly, there are wiser ways to preach the uncompromising truth than the blunt manner in which it is

sometimes put. But are we sure that in choosing the “wiser ways” we have not compromised the

essentials of the message at some point? May God help us!

2. THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE MINISTER TO HIS PEOPLE. When a church calls a pastor or

an evangelist, they do so, generally, upon conditions understood by both parties. This amounts to a

moral contract, whether papers are signed or not. A bride and groom do not often “sign” any

contract, but they enter into vows by mutual agreement. These, however, are so morally binding

that heaven itself demands that they be kept. Would to God more ministers realized the solemnity of

the contract they enter into in accepting a church’s call.

This unwritten contract binds the minister to be a true witness for Jesus Christ, both in and out of the

pulpit. His spoken word, business dealings, personal appearance, home life, and conduct among his

people are expected to be” above reproach.”

The pastor cannot afford to overlook the time element. Most of his members punch a time clock.

Housewives are early at their duties, and business is early on the move. While he must have proper

time for rest, the public and the church despise a lazy minister, and rightly so! Such a man should not

be surprised if soon he has to look elsewhere for employment.

Nor can a minister be true to his calling and contract with his church if, while he is paid a reasonable

salary by the church, he insists on working a portion of his time at other employment while his church

suffers for his attention. I have the greatest respect and highest honor for the precious men who feel

they have to work to make their home missionary churches go. But the pastor who receives sufficient

support from his church, then works on the side, is in danger of betraying his trust. Even if he must

sacrifice to live on his salary, if he would devote his time to God’s work and improve his own talents,

his support would likewise improve.

The minister also owes it to his church to uphold her standards. Her regulations, based upon the Word

of God, and formulated by holy men over a long period of years, are not to be set at naught by him. In

non-essentials, all are free; but Biblical standards, plainly set down, we are bound to obey. If a minister

does not intend to obey the rules and honor the church’s scriptural standards, then let him find another

church, more to his liking. To remain in a church and be untrue to it is to infringe upon a good

conscience, if not to practice hypocrisy.

The history of denominations reveals that it takes only about two generations of failure on the part of

leaders to be true to the spiritual standards and doctrines of a church, until that church will drift back

into a cold and formal state. If we are unfaithful to our youth today, in another generation our misdeeds

will spring forth in shallowness, worldliness, and general backsliding.

3. THE MINISTER’S RESPONSIBILITY TO THE WORLD. This may best be met by faithfully

discharging his duties to God and the church. In their saner moments and more serious reflections,

men still look toward the church for help in their greatest needs. Whether they attend it or not, they

generally have high expectancy from it, especially from its minister.

The minister must not allow his life and influence to undermine this confidence. His contacts with the

outside world must always be such as to hold for him this esteem and high regard. Men may not always

pay him high tributes in his presence. Often it is quite the contrary.

But often, too, at such times the worldling is merely “testing the metal” of which the minister is made.

If he “rings true,” good; if not, it is a heart-sickening disappointment.

Let us remember that we have a message for the world. Our lives and contacts must not lower men’s

respect for that message! When our ministry has the confidence of the world, even though its

outspoken criticism may accompany it, we are safe as a church. But when our ministry loses this

confidence, even though the world may shout, “Hail fellow, well met!” we are done for as a church.

In a large degree, it is up to us, ministers, to carry forward the work of God to success.

May God help us to do our best!



Pilgrim Holiness Advocate

Vol. XXXIV – July 31, 1954 – No. 31



33 EDWARD MCKENDREE BOUNDS – A Biographical Sketch

H. W. Hodge

Edward McKendree Bounds was born in Shelby County, Missouri, August 15, 1835, and died August

24, 1913, in Washington, Georgia. He received a common school education at Shelbyville, and was

admitted to the bar soon after his majority. He practiced law until called to preach the gospel at the age

of twenty-four. His first pastorate was Monticello, Missouri, circuit. It was while serving as pastor of

Brunswick, Missouri, that [Civil] war was declared and the young minister was made a prisoner of war

because he would not take the oath of allegiance to the Federal Government. He was sent to St. Louis,

and later transferred to Memphis, Tennessee.

Finally securing his release, he traveled on foot nearly one hundred miles to join General Pierce’s

[Confederate Army] command in Mississippi and was soon after made chaplain of the Fifth Missouri

Regiment, a position he held until near the close of the war, when he was captured and held as prisoner

at Nashville, Tennessee.

After the war Rev. E. M. Bounds was pastor of churches in Tennessee and Alabama. In 1875 he was

assigned to St. Paul Methodist Church in St. Louis, and served there for four years. In 1876 he was

married to Miss Emmie Barnette at Eufaula, Alabama, who died ten years later. In 1887 he was married

to Miss Hattie Barnette, [a sister of his first wife] who, with five children, survived him.

After serving several pastorates, he was sent to the First Methodist Church in St. Louis, Missouri, for

one year and to St. Paul Methodist Church for three years. At the end of his pastorate, he became the

editor of the St. Louis Christian Advocate.

He was a forceful writer, and a very deep thinker. He spent the last seventeen years of his life with his

family in Washington, Georgia. Most of the time he was reading, writing, and praying.

He rose at 4 a. m. each day for many years and was indefatigable in his study of the Bible. His writings

were read by thousands of people and were in demand by the church people of every Protestant

denomination.

Bounds was the embodiment of humility, with a seraphic devotion to Jesus Christ. He reached that high

place where self is forgotten and the love of God and humanity was the all-absorbing thought and

purpose. At seventy-six years of age he came to me in Brooklyn, New York, and so intense was he that

he awoke us at 3 o’clock in the morning praying and weeping over the lost of earth. All during the day

he would go into the church next door and be found on his knees until called for his meals. This is what

he called the “Business of Praying.” Infused with this heavenly ozone, he wrote “Preacher and Prayer,”

a classic in its line, and now gone into several foreign languages, read by men and women all over the

world.



Pilgrim Holiness Advocate

Vol. XXXIV – September 11, 1954 – No. 37



34 A PASTOR’S TACT

American Holiness Journal

Dr. W. A. Robinson, after paying a glowing tribute of personal affection for Dr. Fee, who, at a critical

period in his spiritual life, was a great help to him, spoke especially of Dr. Fee’s tact in his work, which

he illustrated by the following incident which the doctor had given him:

“On going to one of my charges, I was told that a certain farmer belonging to the church was greatly

addicted to faultfinding, and that when I visited him he would be sure to take that occasion to serve up

to me the foibles of all his brethren.

“I had not been there long until the farmer invited me to come out to his farm and take dinner with him.

As I had been forewarned that he would, sure enough, he did bring out, with great apparent relish, the

faults of all the membership. ‘So and so was all right, but unfortunately he was so and so;’ and thus he

gave a stab in the back to each of the members as they passed in review before him.

“I heard him without comment, or attempting any defense, or bringing any railing accusation against

him as an ‘accuser of the brethren.’ But I watched my time before leaving him to lodge my impression

with him in an inoffensive way, which might yet do its own work.

“He had a large apple orchard, loaded with choice, ripe fruit. Just before starting for home he gave me a

basket and said, ‘Brother Fee, go into the orchard and fill the basket with apples to take home with

you.’

“Accepting the basket, I went to the orchard and filled it with speckled and half-rotten apples. When I

returned, he said: ‘Why, man... what did you fill your basket with that worthless lot for, when the

ground is covered with fine, large, sound ones?’ And he threw them away with disgust, and brought me

the basket filled with the best.

“Then was my opportunity, and I said to him, as gently as I could, ‘Brother, all the afternoon you have

been filling me up with the speckled members of the church, when I am sure there are multitudes of

good ones.’

“He took my rebuke with the best of good nature, and he said, ‘Brother Fee, you are right, and I have

been wrong; and I’ll never do it again’ -- and he never did while I was his pastor.”



THE END

from The EnterHisRest website